Earlier this year, Verizon Communications (VZ 0.42%) stock got a big boost after reporting some strong earnings numbers. The company's growth was better than expected, resulting in some renewed bullishness around the stock. As a result, it's up 12% this year, which is a nice change of pace from previous years when it has struggled to attract investors.
In a couple of weeks, on April 27, the company is scheduled to release its next earnings report, covering the first three months of 2026. Should you buy Verizon stock before those numbers come out?
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The pressure will be on Verizon to prove Q4 wasn't a fluke
When Verizon released its most recent earnings numbers on Jan. 30, the highlight was that its net adds for the quarter were the highest since 2019, at more than 1 million. New CEO Dan Schulman said the company was "exiting 2025 with strong momentum, delivered by a team that is intensely
focused on winning through healthy volumes and fiscally responsible growth."
The big test will be whether the company can indeed prove that it has gotten back to growth, or if it was a one-off boost from the holiday shopping season. Verizon has also been struggling in recent years to generate much growth, and thus, it may also have been overdue for a strong quarter like the one it experienced in Q4. If the company follows up with similarly impressive numbers in Q1, however, that could be an excellent sign that management's strategy is working effectively.
NYSE: VZ
Key Data Points
Why the stock may be worth buying anyway
Even if Verizon falls short of expectations in its upcoming quarter, the stock still makes for a compelling buy. Not only is it cheap, trading at just nine times its estimated future earnings, but it also pays a dividend that yields 6.2%, which is well above the S&P 500 average of 1.2%. It's a fairly safe payout that investors can rely on for the long term. Plus, with the company recently closing its acquisition of Frontier, its long-term growth prospects look better than ever, with Verizon significantly expanding its fiber network.
Although the stock is doing well this year, I'm confident that Verizon's shares may have even more room to run higher in the long run. For buy-and-hold investors, this may be one of the better dividend stocks to buy right now, as not only does it possess some attractive upside, but it can be a great source of recurring income for years to come.
