Hills Bank & Trust Co Sells 830 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Hills Bank & Trust Co cut its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 22,740 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 830 shares during the quarter. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $909,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VZ. Greatmark Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Greatmark Investment Partners Inc. now owns 112,289 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $4,490,000 after purchasing an additional 3,300 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 13.9% in the 4th quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 473,800 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $18,947,000 after purchasing an additional 57,800 shares during the period. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 473.9% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC now owns 236,232 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $9,447,000 after purchasing an additional 195,067 shares during the period. Aviso Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 21.7% in the 4th quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. now owns 52,770 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $2,110,000 after purchasing an additional 9,420 shares during the period. Finally, Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC grew its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Thompson Siegel & Walmsley LLC now owns 30,607 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,224,000 after purchasing an additional 1,072 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.50 to $48.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Argus raised Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Wolfe Research downgraded Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verizon Communications has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.11.

Verizon Communications Stock Down 0.1 %

VZ opened at $43.67 on Friday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1-year low of $37.59 and a 1-year high of $47.36. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.01 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.93. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21. The stock has a market cap of $183.82 billion, a PE ratio of 10.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.41.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current year.

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.21%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 65.46%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 11,085 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $40.88, for a total transaction of $453,154.80. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 14,590 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $596,439.20. This represents a 43.17 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Vandana Venkatesh sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.79, for a total value of $437,900.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 14,459 shares in the company, valued at approximately $633,159.61. This trade represents a 40.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 49,085 shares of company stock worth $2,020,895 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.02% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Company 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).