Semus Wealth Partners LLC Sells 599 Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Semus Wealth Partners LLC trimmed its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,502 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 599 shares during the period. Semus Wealth Partners LLC’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $202,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VZ. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Verizon Communications during the 1st quarter valued at about $250,312,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 4,520.3% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 4,815,534 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $216,266,000 after acquiring an additional 4,711,309 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 112.6% in the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 6,574,910 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $273,507,000 after acquiring an additional 3,481,936 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 18.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 13,016,271 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $536,791,000 after acquiring an additional 2,040,247 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Wealth Planning LLC grew its stake in Verizon Communications by 37.9% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Wealth Planning LLC now owns 6,973,838 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $287,601,000 after acquiring an additional 1,916,951 shares in the last quarter. 62.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:VZ opened at $41.70 on Monday. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52 week low of $36.20 and a 52 week high of $45.36. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $43.03 and a 200 day moving average of $41.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $175.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.95, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 0.43.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. The company had revenue of $33.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $33.42 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.22 earnings per share. Verizon Communications’s revenue for the quarter was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 1st. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $0.678 per share. This is a positive change from Verizon Communications’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.50%. Verizon Communications’s dividend payout ratio is presently 116.81%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have commented on VZ shares. KeyCorp downgraded shares of Verizon Communications from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.50 to $47.25 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $48.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 23rd. Finally, Tigress Financial upped their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $52.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.37.

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).