Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO Has $1.33 Million Stock Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO lowered its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 2.5% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 29,225 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 764 shares during the quarter. Town & Country Bank & Trust CO dba First Bankers Trust CO’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $1,326,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mainstream Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the fourth quarter worth approximately $28,000. Mattson Financial Services LLC grew its position in Verizon Communications by 114.6% in the fourth quarter. Mattson Financial Services LLC now owns 777 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 415 shares in the last quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Graney & King LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Compass Financial Services Inc bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VZ. Wolfe Research cut shares of Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen cut Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. Oppenheimer upped their price target on Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 1st. Evercore ISI raised Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.41.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of Verizon Communications stock opened at $43.30 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $182.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.46, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.39. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 1 year low of $37.59 and a 1 year high of $47.36. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $43.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $42.18. The company has a current ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $33.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.31 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 9,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $44.10, for a total value of $396,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 10,008 shares in the company, valued at approximately $441,352.80. This represents a 47.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 21,500 shares of company stock valued at $938,400 over the last three months. 0.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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).