Kyle Malady Sells 6,226 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Stock

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ – Get Rating) CEO Kyle Malady sold 6,226 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.69, for a total value of $228,431.94. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 67,966 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,493,672.54. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Kyle Malady also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, March 13th, Kyle Malady sold 7,199 shares of Verizon Communications stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.50, for a total value of $262,763.50.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock opened at $36.79 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $154.51 billion, a PE ratio of 7.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.36. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.97. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $34.55 and a 52-week high of $55.51.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.20 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $35.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $35.14 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 15.53% and a return on equity of 24.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.31 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, May 1st. Investors of record on Monday, April 10th will be issued a $0.6525 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 6th. This represents a $2.61 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.09%. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is 51.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verizon Communications

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of VZ. BCK Partners Inc. acquired a new position in Verizon Communications in the 1st quarter worth about $2,101,000. Axiom Financial Strategies LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Axiom Financial Strategies LLC now owns 5,980 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $279,000 after buying an additional 487 shares in the last quarter. Ergoteles LLC increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 174.0% during the 1st quarter. Ergoteles LLC now owns 91,776 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $4,675,000 after buying an additional 58,283 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in Verizon Communications by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,194,111 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $60,828,000 after buying an additional 113,032 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Western Trust Bank purchased a new stake in Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter worth approximately $567,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 60.96% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VZ has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Tigress Financial cut their price target on Verizon Communications from $68.00 to $64.00 in a report on Friday, December 16th. Cowen cut their price target on Verizon Communications from $55.00 to $49.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Oppenheimer cut their price target on Verizon Communications from $50.00 to $46.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $40.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, StockNews.com started coverage on Verizon Communications in a report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, thirteen have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $47.63.

Verizon Communications Company Profile

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Verizon Communications, Inc is a holding company, which engages in the provision of communications, information, and entertainment products and services. It operates through the Verizon Consumer Group (Consumer) and Verizon Business Group (Business) segments. The Consumer segment provides consumer-focused wireless and wire line communications services and products.