New York State Common Retirement Fund Has $217.35 Million Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

New York State Common Retirement Fund boosted its position in shares of Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 5,435,053 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after purchasing an additional 9,000 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned 0.13% of Verizon Communications worth $217,348,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VZ. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 6.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 101,273,082 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $4,548,163,000 after buying an additional 5,936,009 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 95,824,245 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $4,289,054,000 after buying an additional 2,081,241 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 29,074,297 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $1,305,727,000 after buying an additional 565,842 shares in the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 2.8% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 18,161,563 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $815,636,000 after buying an additional 502,949 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its stake in Verizon Communications by 0.4% in the third quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 12,493,998 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $561,105,000 after buying an additional 46,100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.54, for a total transaction of $810,800.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 45,675 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,851,664.50. This represents a 30.45 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders sold 39,085 shares of company stock valued at $1,582,995 over the last quarter. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verizon Communications Stock Performance

Shares of VZ stock traded up $0.28 on Friday, hitting $42.77. The company's stock had a trading volume of 25,452,613 shares, compared to its average volume of 23,105,430. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.21, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.63. The stock's 50 day moving average is $39.90 and its 200-day moving average is $41.59. Verizon Communications Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $37.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.36. The company has a market capitalization of $180.05 billion, a PE ratio of 10.33, a PEG ratio of 4.40 and a beta of 0.45.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a net margin of 12.99% and a return on equity of 19.80%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.08 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th were given a dividend of $0.6775 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.34%. Verizon Communications's dividend payout ratio is 65.46%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VZ. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price objective on shares of Verizon Communications from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, January 24th. TD Cowen raised shares of Verizon Communications to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. KeyCorp lowered shares of Verizon Communications from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Tigress Financial reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Verizon Communications in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Argus raised shares of Verizon Communications to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $46.08.

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).