Check Capital Management Inc. CA Has $231,000 Position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ)

Check Capital Management Inc. CA cut its position in Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) by 10.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 5,787 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after selling 683 shares during the quarter. Check Capital Management Inc. CA’s holdings in Verizon Communications were worth $231,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Newman Dignan & Sheerar Inc. increased its holdings in Verizon Communications by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Newman Dignan & Sheerar Inc. now owns 31,570 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,262,000 after purchasing an additional 531 shares during the period. Roxbury Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verizon Communications in the 4th quarter valued at about $198,000. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Guyasuta Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 48,423 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $1,936,000 after buying an additional 434 shares during the period. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 16,233 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $649,000 after acquiring an additional 554 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CapWealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verizon Communications by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. CapWealth Advisors LLC now owns 366,410 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $14,653,000 after acquiring an additional 12,058 shares during the period. 62.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VZ has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Verizon Communications from $46.00 to $42.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. Tigress Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Verizon Communications in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Verizon Communications from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Sanford C. Bernstein started coverage on Verizon Communications in a research report on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued a “market perform” rating and a $48.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group upped their target price on Verizon Communications from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.08.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Kyle Malady sold 8,000 shares of Verizon Communications stock in a transaction on Monday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.88, for a total transaction of $319,040.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,590 shares in the company, valued at approximately $262,809.20. This trade represents a 54.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 39,085 shares of company stock worth $1,582,995. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verizon Communications Price Performance

VZ stock opened at $41.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $172.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.17 and a beta of 0.45. Verizon Communications Inc. has a 52-week low of $37.58 and a 52-week high of $45.36. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $39.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $41.56. 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 (NYSE:VZ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 24th. The cell phone carrier reported $1.10 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.11 by ($0.01). Verizon Communications had a return on equity of 19.80% and a net margin of 12.99%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. Research analysts expect that Verizon Communications Inc. will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verizon Communications Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $2.71 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.61%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. Verizon Communications’s payout ratio is currently 65.46%.

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).