Why Should You Think About Verizon Stock Differently Now?
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Verizon Communications (VZ) stock trades at 11.7 times earnings, against 21.8 for the S&P 500. Even at that discount, an owner should know where the company expects its growth to come from, and Verizon’s answer has changed. On the third-quarter 2025 call, management emphasized growth in wireless service revenue, the revenue generated from mobile service. Now the company highlights something else. So what is Verizon talking up instead?
Verizon Now Talks Up Customer Growth And AI Deals
On its October 26, 2026 call, management said postpaid phone net additions rose 820% from a year earlier, to 406,000. That percentage is large because the year-earlier number was small, about 44,000. It also said AI infrastructure is becoming a real growth driver for Verizon, and announced a dark fiber agreement with Amazon Web Services.
A year earlier, the emphasis was on revenue. During the October 29, 2025 call, management said Verizon had delivered over $400 million of year-over-year wireless service revenue growth in the quarter, pointing to that figure as its growth metric at the time. That same call also marked a shift. Management said Verizon had relied too heavily on price increases, setting out a move to a customer-first focus. The company still reports wireless service revenue, but it is no longer the growth figure management emphasizes.
Verizon’s Wireless Service Revenue Has Not Returned To Growth
Wireless service revenue came in just over $20.9 billion in the third quarter of 2026, accounting for about 61% of Verizon’s $34.3 billion total revenue. In the second quarter of 2026, wireless service revenue declined 0.7% from a year earlier to $20.8 billion, management said on that quarter’s call. Verizon now expects it to grow again from a year earlier in the fourth quarter.
The measure management now points to instead is growing. Mobility and broadband service revenue, a wider measure adding broadband to mobile service, grew 2.9% in the third quarter, up from 1.6% in the first. Management expects that growth to reach about 4% in the fourth quarter.
The AI deals will take time to show up in results. Verizon has signed contracts for about $4 billion, and management said the company will begin to see their impact in 2027.
Is Verizon’s New Focus Reassuring For Shareholders?
On balance, the shift is more reassuring than concerning. Verizon is adding customers without offering free lines, management said, and the company now expects 1.1 million to 1.2 million postpaid phone net additions in 2026, more than three times last year’s result.
Wireless service revenue is still the open question. Management said on the latest call that Verizon has added a tremendous amount of value for customers in the last year, and that the company can start to think about raising prices again. It also said past price rises added no value for customers, and that it is not against raising prices as long as value is added. Verizon is expected to report fourth-quarter results in January 2027, and wireless service revenue against its year-earlier level is the figure to watch.
Beyond VZ: A Systematic Way To Invest
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