Why VZ Stock Is Falling Premarket Despite Verizon Hitting 5-Year High In Phone Additions, Raising 2026 Outlook

Though EPS beat estimates and subscriber growth accelerated, quarterly revenue fell short of Wall Street expectations.

• Verizon reported adjusted EPS of $1.31, topping analyst consensus, while revenue of $34.31 billion missed estimates.
• Postpaid phone net additions surged more than 820% year-over-year, the strongest third-quarter result in five years, the company said.
• Verizon also expanded its AI infrastructure partnership with Amazon Web Services in a deal valued at over $2 billion.

 Verizon Communications (VZ) reported its strongest third-quarter performance in wireless customer additions in five years and raised its full-year 2026 guidance. 

However, VZ stock was down about 1% in premarket trading on Monday after the telecom carrier reported quarterly revenue below Wall Street expectations, despite beating earnings per share (EPS) estimates.

The company also reported higher cash flow and signed an AI infrastructure deal worth more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services.

 VZ Q3 Earnings Beat EPS Estimates

Verizon reported adjusted earnings of $1.31 per share for the third quarter of 2026, above the consensus estimate of $1.27, according to Fiscal.ai.

Revenue, however, came in at $34.31 billion, below the consensus estimate of $34.85 billion. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) stood at $13.80 billion, compared with the consensus estimate of $13.73 billion.

Postpaid Phone Additions Reach 5-Year High

Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone subscribers in the third quarter, up more than 820% year over year, the company said. This marked the company’s strongest third-quarter performance in wireless customer additions in five years.

Verizon also added 137,000 postpaid net accounts, its best performance in more than a decade. It added nearly 1.7 million mobility and broadband subscribers in the first nine months of 2026, up from 879,000 in the same period in 2025.

Verizon reported cash flow from operations of $11.5 billion in the third quarter, up 2.2% year over year. This supported free cash flow of $7.8 billion, an increase of 12.1% from the year-ago period.

Verizon Raises Full-Year 2026 Guidance

Verizon raised its full-year 2026 adjusted EPS guidance to $5.04 to $5.06, compared with its previous estimate of $4.99 to $5.04. The new range is above the analyst consensus of $5.02, according to Fiscal.ai.

The company also raised its full-year postpaid phone net-addition target to 1.1 million to 1.2 million, from the upper half of its previous range of 750,000 to 1 million. The revised target is more than three times higher than the 2025 target.

Verizon now expects cash flow from operations to grow 3.5% to 5% year-over-year, up from its previous forecast of 2% to 4%.

The company maintained its 2026 capital expenditure outlook at $16 billion to $16.5 billion, compared with Wall Street’s estimate of $16.34 billion.

Verizon also signed an AI infrastructure deal worth more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services. 

What Retail Thinks About VZ Stock

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment for VZ remained ‘neutral,’ unchanged in the past 24 hours, while message volume was ‘normal’ at the time of writing.

VZ stock has gained over 10% year-to-date. 

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