Verizon's stock rises as subscriber surge impresses Wall Street

By Emily Bary

Verizon's performance on a key measure of subscriber growth was more than double what analysts had expected

Verizon easily topped subscriber estimates Monday while raising its full-year expectations.

Verizon Communications just posted its best third-quarter performance in years on a key subscriber metric - and more than double what Wall Street was expecting.

The telecommunications company reported Monday that during the latest quarter, it added 406,000 net postpaid phone subscribers - or those who pay for service at the end of the billing cycle. Analysts tracked by FactSet had been projecting 195,000 on average.

The performance underscores Verizon's (VZ) transformation over the past year. In the third quarter of 2025, Verizon only added a net of 44,000 postpaid phone subscribers. Since then, the company under CEO Dan Schulman has made changes to plans and taken other actions meant to make Verizon's offerings more appealing and easier to understand.

He said in Monday's press release that Verizon is "winning loyal, high-value customers" while improving its profitability.

Shares of Verizon were up 2% in Monday's premarket action.

Verizon increased its full-year forecast and now expects 1.1 million to 1.2 million postpaid phone net additions, whereas its prior outlook called for that number to be in the "upper half" of 750,000 to 1 million.

The company also now expects adjusted earnings per share to grow 7% to 7.5% for the full year, whereas its previous forecast modeled growth of 6% to 7%. And free cash flow, a measure of the cash Verizon's business generates after subtracting investments in infrastructure, is expected to "approach" a 12% growth rate for 2026. Verizon's earlier forecast called for 9% to 10% growth.

Schulman, who took over as Verizon's CEO just over a year ago, has moved to strike deals with artificial-intelligence companies that want access to fiber for data transmission. Investors got an update on those efforts in Monday's release.

The company noted a "landmark" AI infrastructure deal with Amazon.com's AWS that was signed during the third quarter and is worth more than $2 billion. Verizon had announced a $1 billion "dark fiber" deal with Google on its last earnings call.

For the third quarter, Verizon generated $1.31 in adjusted earnings per share, up 8.3% from a year before and ahead of the $1.27 FactSet consensus view.

Mobility and broadband service revenue came in at $23.5 billion, up 2.9% from a year before, and Verizon sees growth picking up to a 4% rate during the fourth quarter.

-Emily Bary

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10-26-26 0711ET