Tompkins Financial Corp Sells 5,694 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Tompkins Financial Corp lessened its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 18.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,836 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 5,694 shares during the quarter. Tompkins Financial Corp’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $993,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,548,163,000 after purchasing an additional 5,936,009 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after buying an additional 2,081,241 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.0% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 38,357,031 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,581,848,000 after buying an additional 1,106,887 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $1,305,727,000 after buying an additional 565,842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its holdings in Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $815,636,000 after buying an additional 502,949 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 target price on the stock. Raymond James upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. TD Cowen raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.54.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE VZ opened at $38.32 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $41.11 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.73. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.58 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.66. The company has a market cap of $161.32 billion, a PE ratio of 16.52, a P/E/G ratio of 3.17 and a beta of 0.46.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.22 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

Verizon Communications Profile

Verizon Communications Inc, through its subsidiaries, engages in the provision of communications, technology, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental entities worldwide. It operates in two segments, Verizon Consumer Group (Consumer) and Verizon Business Group (Business).