Missouri Trust & Investment Co Trims Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Missouri Trust & Investment Co decreased its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 9.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 4,218 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 442 shares during the period. Missouri Trust & Investment Co’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $169,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VZ. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.1% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 679,435 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $28,020,000 after buying an additional 56,534 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 18.6% during the 2nd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 16,077 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $651,000 after acquiring an additional 2,517 shares in the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its position in Verizon Communications by 74.5% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 162,405 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $6,698,000 after acquiring an additional 69,328 shares in the last quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 9.0% during the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 23,122 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $954,000 after purchasing an additional 1,918 shares during the period. Finally, Resources Management Corp CT ADV lifted its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 2.8% during the second quarter. Resources Management Corp CT ADV now owns 80,287 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $3,311,000 after purchasing an additional 2,149 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:VZ opened at $39.04 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.68. The company has a market capitalization of $164.34 billion, a PE ratio of 16.83, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 0.46. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.58 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. Verizon Communications’s revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.22 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.59 earnings per share 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 116.81%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on VZ. KeyCorp lowered Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Tigress Financial upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Citigroup boosted their price objective on Verizon Communications from $47.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of Verizon Communications to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.54.

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).