Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) raised its full-year 2026 outlook for the third straight quarter after adding a net 406,000 postpaid phone customers in the third quarter, up from a recast 44,000 a year earlier. The wireless carrier now expects 1.1 million to 1.2 million such additions for 2026 and adjusted profit of $5.04 to $5.06 a share.
Key points
Adjusted earnings per share rose to $1.31 from $1.21.
Free cash flow, the cash left after capital spending, rose 12.1% to $7.8 billion.
What did Verizon report for the third quarter?
Postpaid phone net additions count new phone customers on monthly bills, minus those who left. Verizon called the quarter its "strongest third-quarter performance in five years" in its earnings release. Its postpaid phone churn, the share of those customers who leave each month, was 0.94%.
Total revenue rose 1.5% to $34.3 billion. Revenue from wireless and broadband service grew 2.9% to $23.5 billion, while equipment revenue fell 9.0% as fewer customers upgraded phones.
Net income rose 5.2% to $5.3 billion. Earnings per share rose to $1.25 from $1.17. Adjusted earnings, which exclude acquisition-related costs, were $1.31 a share.
Verizon added a net 314,000 broadband customers, bringing total broadband connections to 17.4 million. It also signed a deal with Amazon Web Services valued at more than $2.0 billion to expand computing capacity for artificial intelligence.
What does Verizon expect for 2026?
Its target for postpaid phone net additions is now 1.1 million to 1.2 million, up from the upper half of a 750,000 to 1.0 million range. Through the first nine months of 2026, it added 645,000, compared with a net loss of 254,000 a year earlier.
It now expects adjusted earnings of $5.04 to $5.06 a share, or growth of 7.0% to 7.5%, up from 6.0% to 7.0%. Free cash flow growth should approach 12.0%, up from 9.0% to 10.0%. Capital spending guidance stayed at $16.0 billion to $16.5 billion.
It expects fourth-quarter wireless and broadband service revenue growth of about 4.0%. To see what is coming up for your own stocks, preview earnings for what you own.
Sources: Verizon, third-quarter 2026 earnings release, Oct. 26, 2026, second-quarter 2026 earnings release, July 24, 2026, first-quarter 2026 earnings release, April 27, 2026, and recast 2025 operating data, March 13, 2026.
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