U.S. telecom Verizon (NYSE:VZ) provided a robust outlook for the full year and reported top-and-bottom-line beats for the fourth quarter along with strong additions for postpaid phone subscribers.
Shares of the company were up nearly 4% in premarket NYSE trading on Friday but pared early gains and are currently up 2.4%.
For 2026, Verizon expects adjusted earnings per share of $4.90 to $4.95, or growth of 4% to 5%.
According to calculations done by Seeking Alpha, if adjusted EPS grows 4%, it would beat estimates by 13 cents, and at 5% growth, it would beat them by 18 cents. The consensus estimate for 2026 adjusted EPS is $4.77. The company earned $4.71 apiece in 2025.
Wireless service revenue growth will be about flat in 2026, the company said, as it transitions to sustainable volume-based growth; cash flow from operations is expected to be $37.5B to $38B (est. $38.75B), and free cash flow of at least $21.5B (est. $20.79B).
It also provided an FY capital spending budget forecast of $16B to $16.5B, which is comparable to the estimate of $18.08B.
Verizon saw total postpaid phone net additions of 616,000 for Q4, up 22% and far ahead of the consensus estimate of 420,491 additions polled by Bloomberg.
In the Consumer unit, wireless retail postpaid phone churn was 0.95%, and retail postpaid churn was 1.21%. Postpaid ARPA was $147.36, up 1.2%. The consumer business also saw 109,000 wireless retail core prepaid net additions vs. 47,000 net additions in Q3.
Verizon Business saw 11,000 wireless retail postpaid net additions vs. 110,000 additions in Q3.
For the three months ended December 31, the New York-based company earned a net income of $2.45B, or $0.55 per share, compared with $5.11B, or $1.18 per share, a year earlier.
On an adjusted per-share basis, it earned $1.09, beating the average analyst estimate of $1.06 per share.
Service and other revenue in Q4 was $28.18B; wireless equipment revenue was $8.2B. Both metrics were above the consensus estimates.
Total revenue was up 2% at $36.4B and was ahead of expectations by $200M.