Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) shares rose on Friday after the company reported upbeat fourth-quarter financial results and guidance for 2026.
The company reported quarterly revenue growth of 2.0% year-over-year (Y/Y), reaching $36.40 billion, which beat the analyst consensus estimate of $36.06 billion.
Adjusted EPS of $1.09 beat the analyst consensus estimate of $1.05.
Verizon reported total postpaid phone net adds of 616,000, up from 504,000 a year ago, marking the best quarter of postpaid phone net adds since 2019.
Don’t miss:
Verizon reported 372,000 net broadband additions in the quarter.
Total fixed wireless access net adds were 319,000 in the quarter, bringing the base to more than 5.7 million fixed wireless access subscribers.
The company had 67,000 net Fios Internet adds in the quarter.
Total broadband connections grew to more than 16.3 million at the end of the quarter following the closing of the Frontier acquisition.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, wireless revenue reached $21 billion, up 1.1% year-over-year.
Verizon Consumer’s total quarterly revenue was $28.44 billion, up 3.2% year-over-year, reporting 551,000 net wireless retail postpaid phone additions for the quarter, up from 367,000 net postpaid phone additions year-over-year.
Consumer wireless revenue for the quarter reached $17.37 billion, up 1.2% year-over-year.
Trend: Blue-chip art has historically outperformed the S&P 500 since 1995, and fractional investing is now opening up this institutional asset class to everyday investors.
Retail postpaid wireless phone churn was 1.21% and retail postpaid wireless phone churn was 0.95% during the quarter. Consumer wireless postpaid average revenue per account (ARPA) stood at $147.36, representing a 1.2% year-over-year increase.
Consumer reported 109,000 net additions of wireless retail basic prepaid.
Verizon Business’ total quarterly revenue was $7.37 billion, a 1.8% year-over-year decline amid 11,000 postpaid wireless retail net additions in the quarter, including 65,000 postpaid phone net additions.
Enterprise wireless revenue was $3.59 billion, up 0.5% year-over-year during the quarter.
Wireless retail postpaid business churn was 1.64% and wireless retail postpaid phone churn was 1.27% in the quarter.
The EBITDA margin of the Consumer segment decreased 100 bps to 36.5%, while the EBITDA margin of the Business segment fell 10 bps to 22.0%.
Verizon’s quarterly adjusted EBITDA decreased to $11.86 billion, down from $11.93 billion year over year.
Verizon’s net income was $2.45 billion, up from $5.11 billion a year ago.
Verizon’s quarterly free cash flow was $4.37 billion, up from $5.36 billion annually.
Verizon CEO Daniel Schulman highlighted the closing of Verizon’s Frontier acquisition on January 20 as a major milestone in the turnaround, expanding the company’s fiber footprint to more than 30 million homes and businesses.
He added that Verizon has reached a critical inflection point.
See also: Wall Street’s $12 billion real estate manager is opening its doors to individual investors, without crowdfunding intermediaries
Verizon is driving an aggressive growth strategy to make up ground AT&T Inc.. (NYSE:T) and T-Mobile USA, Inc.. (NASDAQ:TMUS).
Under the new CEO, Verizon launched bigger promotions, streamlined operations and refocused on customer retention.
Verizon has offered free top-tier smartphones with new lines and bundled Internet plans, including perks like a free Samsung TV, to stand out in a crowded market.
Schulman has also moved quickly to reshape the company, eliminating about 13,000 jobs and promising a leaner, faster organization after Verizon lost momentum due to price increases and customer service issues.
Verizon expects total net additions of retail postpaid phones of between 750,000 and 1.0 million.
The company expects total broadband and mobility services revenue growth of 2.0% to 3.0%, which is equivalent to approximately $93 billion.
He expects stable wireless revenue growth as the company transitions to sustainable volume-based growth.
Verizon expects adjusted earnings per share of between $4.90 and $4.95, versus the analyst consensus estimate of $4.76.
The company expects free cash flow of $21.5 billion or more, implying a year-over-year growth rate of 7% or more, marking the highest free cash flow it has generated since 2020.
It expects operating cash flow of between $37.5 billion and $38 billion and capex of between $16 billion and $16.5 billion.
Read next: Americans with a financial plan can quadruple their wealth – get your personalized plan from a CFP professional
Photo by Ken Wolter via Shutterstock
UNLOCKED: 5 NEW TRADES EVERY WEEK. Click Now to Get Best Trading Ideas Dailyplus unlimited access to cutting-edge tools and strategies to gain an advantage in the markets.
Get the latest stock analysis from Benzinga:
This article Verizon posts best subscriber growth since 2019 originally appeared on Benzinga.com
Source link
