Verizon earnings 2026 lift stock as phone subscriber gains beat forecasts
Verizon shares rose premarket after stronger postpaid phone additions, higher adjusted profit and a raised service-revenue outlook.
By Frankie Delgado · News Reporter
3 min read
Verizon earnings 2026 gave investors a morning jolt Friday, with the telecom company reporting stronger-than-expected phone subscriber growth and lifting part of its full-year revenue outlook.
Verizon shares were up 4% in premarket trading after the company said it added 184,000 postpaid phone customers on a net basis in the second quarter. Analysts tracked by FactSet had expected 106,000, according to MarketWatch.
That result was a sharp turn from the year-earlier quarter, when Verizon recorded a net loss on the same measure, MarketWatch reported. Postpaid phone customers are closely watched in wireless because they typically represent steadier, higher-value accounts than prepaid users.
Why did Verizon stock rise after earnings?
Investors appeared to focus on Verizon’s better subscriber performance, stronger adjusted earnings and improved forecast for mobility and broadband service revenue. The results also supported Chief Executive Dan Schulman’s January pledge that Verizon would stop being a “hunting ground” for rivals seeking to poach customers.
Schulman said in Verizon’s earnings release that the company was gaining speed across its main measures, with churn down and customer acquisition and retention costs lower. Churn is the rate at which customers leave a service, so lower churn means Verizon is keeping more of the people already paying for its network.
The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.30 a share for the second quarter. That was up from $1.22 a share a year earlier and ahead of the $1.28 a share expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet, according to MarketWatch.
Revenue was softer. Verizon said quarterly revenue fell 0.7% from a year earlier to $34.3 billion, below the $35.2 billion FactSet consensus cited by MarketWatch.
The company pointed to a nearly 20% drop in equipment revenue, saying the decline reflected fewer device promotions and customers keeping their phones for longer. Verizon described the shift in its earnings release as part of a more disciplined approach to its business model.
What changed in Verizon’s outlook?
Verizon said service revenue from mobility and broadband rose 2.8% in the quarter. The company now expects that growth to get faster later in the year, approaching 3% in the third quarter and reaching about 4% in the fourth quarter.
For the full year, Verizon raised its forecast for total mobility and broadband service revenue growth to a range of 2.5% to 3%. Its previous outlook had called for growth of 2% to 3%.
The report landed as Wall Street has been watching whether Schulman could improve Verizon’s wireless performance without damaging the company’s finances or upsetting the balance among major carriers. Friday’s numbers gave the company fresh evidence for that turnaround case, at least on the subscriber and service-revenue lines investors were watching most closely.
This story draws on original reporting from MarketWatch.