Stocks

Verizon Adds 406,000 Postpaid Phone Customers in Q3 and Raises 2026 Outlook for a Third Straight Quarter

Verizon's third-quarter adjusted EPS rose 8.3% to $1.31 on revenue of $34.3 billion, and the carrier raised its 2026 targets for phone additions, adjusted EPS and free cash flow.

Oct 26, 2026 - 07:22

0 1

Verizon Communications reported third-quarter results before the market opened on Monday, October 26, 2026, posting its strongest third-quarter postpaid phone customer growth in five years and raising its full-year guidance for the third consecutive quarter, according to the company's earnings release. The New York-based carrier, listed on both the NYSE and Nasdaq under the ticker VZ, was scheduled to discuss the results on a webcast at 8:30 a.m. ET.

Headline results

Total operating revenue rose 1.5% from a year earlier to $34.3 billion. Net income increased 5.2% to $5.3 billion, and earnings per share rose 6.8% to $1.25 from $1.17. Adjusted EPS, which excludes special items, was $1.31, up 8.3% from $1.21. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA grew 8.0% to $13.8 billion, which Verizon said was the highest quarterly figure it has reported, and the adjusted EBITDA margin widened to 40.2% from 37.8%.

Wall Street had expected adjusted EPS of $1.27 on revenue of $34.85 billion, based on estimates from 18 analysts, AlphaStreet reported ahead of the release.

Mobility and broadband service revenue grew 2.9% to about $23.5 billion, up from growth of 2.8% in the second quarter and 1.6% in the first. Equipment revenue fell 9.0%, which Verizon attributed mainly to significantly lower upgrade volumes, as customers keep devices longer, and to its decision to reduce spending on device subsidies.

Customer growth

Verizon reported 406,000 postpaid phone net additions, an increase of more than 820% from a year earlier, along with 137,000 postpaid net account additions, which it called its best performance in more than a decade. Overall postpaid phone churn improved 4 basis points to 0.94%, and consumer postpaid phone churn improved 4 basis points to 0.87%. Promotional costs of acquisition fell 41% and promotional costs of retention improved 30% from a year earlier, the company said.

The company added 314,000 broadband customers in the quarter, including 159,000 fixed wireless access and 155,000 fiber connections, bringing total broadband connections to 17.4 million. It still expects fiber passings to exceed 32 million by year-end, on the way to a medium-term target of 40 million to 50 million.

"Verizon delivered another record-breaking quarter. One year into our transformation, Verizon is fundamentally stronger — operationally, financially, and competitively," Chief Executive Dan Schulman said in the release.

Cash flow, debt and AI deal

Cash flow from operations rose 2.2% to $11.5 billion in the quarter, and free cash flow increased 12.1% to $7.8 billion. Net unsecured debt fell to $123.7 billion at the end of September from $128.7 billion at the end of June. In the first nine months of the year, Verizon returned $12.8 billion to shareholders, including $8.8 billion in dividends and $4.0 billion in share repurchases, and it continues to expect buybacks of up to $4.5 billion for 2026. Interest expense rose to $1.95 billion from $1.66 billion a year earlier.

Verizon also said it signed an agreement valued at more than $2.0 billion with Amazon Web Services that sets up a commercial framework to scale distributed computing for generative and agentic AI workloads.

Raised 2026 guidance

Postpaid phone net additions: 1.1 million to 1.2 million, up from the upper half of 750,000 to 1.0 million.
Adjusted EPS: $5.04 to $5.06, or growth of 7.0% to 7.5%, up from 6.0% to 7.0%.
Cash flow from operations: growth of 3.5% to 5.0%, up from 2.0% to 4.0%.
Free cash flow: growth approaching 12.0%, up from 9.0% to 10.0%.
Mobility and broadband service revenue: the upper half of the 2.5% to 3.0% growth range, with about 4.0% growth expected in the fourth quarter.

Capital expenditure guidance was unchanged at $16.0 billion to $16.5 billion.

Share price context

Verizon shares fell 1.19% to $44.66 on Friday, October 23, TradingKey reported. That decline followed a Bloomberg report that SpaceX was in talks to access at least 80,000 U.S. cell sites, news that sent AT&T and T-Mobile down nearly 8% each while Verizon lost about 1%, according to TradingKey. Verizon's quarterly dividend of 70.75 cents per share is payable on November 2 to shareholders of record as of October 9, the company has said.