MKT Advisors LLC Has $442,000 Holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

MKT Advisors LLC lowered its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 12.5% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 11,400 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 1,628 shares during the period. MKT Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $442,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verizon Communications by 22.6% during the 4th quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC now owns 45,983 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,839,000 after purchasing an additional 8,466 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC raised its position in Verizon Communications by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC now owns 72,022 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,880,000 after purchasing an additional 868 shares during the last quarter. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. Smith Chas P & Associates PA Cpas now owns 23,486 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $939,000 after purchasing an additional 1,564 shares in the last quarter. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 5.9% in the fourth quarter. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC now owns 124,716 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,987,000 after buying an additional 6,945 shares during the period. Finally, Insight Inv LLC increased its position in Verizon Communications by 27.0% in the 4th quarter. Insight Inv LLC now owns 27,401 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,096,000 after acquiring an additional 5,818 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on VZ shares. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a research report on Friday. UBS Group increased their price target on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 16th. TD Cowen raised shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.29.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ opened at $39.54 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $40.85 and a 200 day moving average of $41.61. 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 firm has a market cap of $166.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.04, a PEG ratio of 3.27 and a beta of 0.46.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 20.05% and a net margin of 7.30%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.85%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 116.81%.

About Verizon Communications

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).