Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Shares Sold by Retirement Systems of Alabama

Retirement Systems of Alabama reduced its stake in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ - Free Report) by 5.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,167,116 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock after selling 131,112 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama owned 0.05% of Verizon Communications worth $97,325,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of VZ. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. lifted its position in Verizon Communications by 21.4% in the third quarter. Inspire Trust Co. N.A. now owns 75,559 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $3,393,000 after purchasing an additional 13,319 shares during the period. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 76.7% during the 3rd quarter. Asset Advisors Investment Management LLC now owns 20,007 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $899,000 after buying an additional 8,685 shares in the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 9.1% during the 3rd quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 364,181 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $16,356,000 after buying an additional 30,316 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 6.1% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 324,831 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock valued at $14,588,000 after buying an additional 18,599 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Optimist Retirement Group LLC grew its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.9% during the third quarter. Optimist Retirement Group LLC now owns 56,222 shares of the cell phone carrier's stock worth $2,525,000 after acquiring an additional 1,047 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.06% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on VZ. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Verizon Communications from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Monday, September 23rd. KeyCorp cut shares of Verizon Communications from an "overweight" rating to a "sector weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of Verizon Communications from $41.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Verizon Communications from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Sunday, December 8th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on Verizon Communications from $43.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $46.46.

Verizon Communications Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of Verizon Communications stock traded up $0.20 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $42.28. 13,283,875 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,338,373. The stock has a market capitalization of $177.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 0.44. Verizon Communications Inc. has a twelve month low of $37.14 and a twelve month high of $45.36. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.53 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.85.

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The cell phone carrier reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $33.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $33.42 billion. Verizon Communications had a net margin of 7.30% and a return on equity of 20.05%. Verizon Communications's revenue was up .9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.22 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.61 EPS for the current year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 3rd. Investors of record on Friday, January 10th will be paid a $0.6775 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 10th. This represents a $2.71 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.41%. Verizon Communications's payout ratio is currently 116.81%.

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).