Midland Wealth Advisors LLC Sells 4,517 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Midland Wealth Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 24.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 13,833 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 4,517 shares during the period. Midland Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $627,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,300,846,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in Verizon Communications during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,083,337,000. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. grew its position in Verizon Communications by 3,601.6% during the fourth quarter. Alyeska Investment Group L.P. now owns 8,937,180 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $357,398,000 after buying an additional 8,695,736 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 108,694,230 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,346,682,000 after acquiring an additional 7,421,148 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its holdings in Verizon Communications by 52.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 19,828,378 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $792,937,000 after acquiring an additional 6,846,514 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research lowered Verizon Communications from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.50 to $49.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 23rd. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on shares of 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 upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $48.00 target price for the company in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $45.00 price target (up previously from $42.00) on shares of Verizon Communications in a report on Tuesday, March 25th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.41.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 9,000 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 10,008 shares in the company, valued at $441,352.80. This represents a 47.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders have sold a total of 21,500 shares of company stock worth $938,400 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.10% of the company’s stock.

Verizon Communications Stock Up 1.2%

Shares of VZ opened at $43.82 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $37.59 and a 52 week high of $47.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $184.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.58, a PEG ratio of 4.45 and a beta of 0.38. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $43.44 and a 200-day moving average of $42.28.

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

Verizon Communications Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.18%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.52%.

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).