Verizon’s Transformation Actions Deliver Growth & Profitability In 1Q26; Company Raises Adjusted EPS Guidance

NEW YORK, NY — Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) as we speak reported first-quarter 2026 outcomes that exhibit accelerating momentum in its strategic transformation. The firm delivered a powerful quarter throughout core working metrics, together with its first constructive first-quarter postpaid cellphone internet provides since 2013. The achievements and efficiency this quarter have been pushed by more healthy buyer economics, together with key enhancements in buyer acquisition and churn, and operational effectivity.

“Our first-quarter 2026 results show that our turnaround is not only progressing, it is gaining momentum,” said Verizon CEO Dan Schulman. “We are beginning to reclaim our market leadership by putting the customer at the center of everything we do, reducing friction to increase loyalty and create genuine value. This disciplined approach is already delivering healthier economics, lower churn, and the first positive first-quarter postpaid phone net adds we’ve seen in over a decade. Given our strong performance and momentum, we are raising our 2026 Adjusted EPS¹ guidance to year-over-year growth of 5.0 to 6.0 percent and we now expect our total retail postpaid phone net additions to be in the upper half of our 750,000 to one million range.”

1Q 2026 Highlights

Frontier results are included in Verizon’s financial and operating results beginning on January 20, 2026, the date of the closing of the acquisition.

Consolidated Financial Results

Total operating revenue was $34.4 billion, up 2.9 percent year-over-year. This result was driven in part by the company’s disciplined approach to promotional spending and the resulting moderated upgrade activity, which impacted wireless equipment revenue.
Consolidated net income was $5.1 billion, a 3.3 percent increase year-over-year.
Consolidated adjusted EBITDA¹ grew 6.7 percent year-over-year to $13.4 billion.
Diluted EPS increased to $1.20, representing solid growth of 4.3 percent year-over-year.
Adjusted EPS¹, excluding special items, grew to $1.28 in first-quarter 2026, a 7.6 percent increase year-over-year and the best quarterly growth rate since 2021.
Cash flow from operating activities was $8.0 billion in first-quarter 2026 compared to $7.8 billion in first-quarter 2025, representing a growth rate of 2.6 percent.
Capital expenditures were $4.2 billion, as network build pace across mobility and fiber remains on track.
Free cash flow¹ was $3.8 billion in first-quarter 2026 compared to $3.6 billion in first-quarter 2025, representing a growth rate of 4.0 percent.
Verizon’s total unsecured debt as of the end of first-quarter 2026 was $142.5 billion, compared to $131.1 billion at the end of fourth-quarter 2025. The company’s net unsecured debt¹ at the end of first-quarter 2026 was $130.1 billion compared to $110.1 billion at the end of the fourth-quarter 2025. At the end of first-quarter 2026, Verizon’s ratio of unsecured debt to consolidated net income (LTM) was 8.0 times and its net unsecured debt to consolidated adjusted EBITDA ratio¹ was 2.6 times.
Verizon paid down approximately half of the Frontier debt since the acquisition closed, and expects to repay substantially all of Frontier’s debt by the end of the year.
Verizon successfully completed $2.5 billion of share repurchases in first-quarter 2026, and remains on track for its full-year target of at least $3.0 billion.

Mobility and Broadband

Mobility and broadband service revenue reached approximately $22.9 billion, representing a 1.6 percent increase year-over-year. The company’s first-quarter revenue result includes an 80 basis point impact to wireless service revenue growth due to the January network outage. In March, mobility and broadband service revenue grew in the middle of the 2.0 percent to 3.0 percent guidance range.
Wireless equipment revenue was $5.7 billion, up 5.2 percent year-over-year.
In first-quarter 2026, Verizon reported total postpaid phone net additions of 55,000, the first time the company generated positive first-quarter total postpaid phone net additions since 2013. The year-over-year improvement of over 340,000 was driven in part by a higher mix of new to Verizon gross additions.
Total core prepaid² net additions were 115,000, representing seven consecutive quarters of growth. Verizon delivered 341,000 broadband net additions in first-quarter 2026. This includes total fixed wireless access net additions of 214,000 and 127,000 fiber broadband net additions.
Verizon now has approximately 16.8 million fixed wireless access and fiber broadband connections.

Outlook and Guidance

Verizon does not provide a reconciliation for certain of the following adjusted (non-GAAP) forecasts because it cannot, without unreasonable effort, predict the special items that could arise, and the company is unable to address the probable significance of the unavailable information.

Transformation efforts and strong first-quarter performance give Verizon the confidence to provide the following raised guidance for 2026:

Adjusted EPS¹ of $4.95 to $4.99, or year-over-year growth of 5.0 to 6.0 percent, representing a significant acceleration compared to recent historical performance.
Total retail postpaid phone net additions are now expected to be in the top half of the 750,000 to 1.0 million range, which is approximately 2 to 3 times the 2025 reported result.

In addition, for 2026, Verizon continues to expect the following:

Total mobility and broadband service revenue growth of 2.0 percent to 3.0 percent, equating to approximately $93 billion. Wireless service revenue growth will be approximately flat in 2026 as the company transitions to sustainable volume-based growth.
Cash flow from operations of $37.5 billion to $38.0 billion.
Capital expenditures of $16.0 billion to $16.5 billion.
Free cash flow¹ of $21.5 billion or more, growing approximately 7.0 percent or more from 2025, which will mark the highest free cash flow¹ generated since 2020.

¹ Non-GAAP financial measure. See the accompanying schedules and www.verizon.com/about/investors for reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures cited in this document to most directly comparable financial measures under generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).

² Represents total prepaid results excluding our SafeLink brand.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) powers and empowers how its millions of customers live, work and play, delivering on their demand for mobility, reliable network connectivity and security. Headquartered in New York City, serving countries worldwide and nearly all of the Fortune 500, Verizon generated revenues of $138.2 billion in 2025. Verizon’s world-class team never stops innovating to meet customers where they are today and equip them for the needs of tomorrow. For more, visit verizon.com or find a retail location at verizon.com/stores.

Forward-looking statements

Forward-looking statements in this communication we have made forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our estimates and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include the information concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations. Forward-looking statements also include those preceded or followed by the words “anticipates,” “assumes,” “believes,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “hopes,” “intends,” “plans,” “targets,” “will” or related expressions. For these statements, we declare the safety of the protected harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We undertake no obligation to revise or publicly launch the outcomes of any revision to those forward-looking statements, besides as required by legislation. Given these dangers and uncertainties, readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The following essential components, together with these mentioned in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), might have an effect on future outcomes and will trigger these outcomes to vary materially from these expressed in the forward-looking statements: the consequences of competitors in the markets in which we function, together with the shortcoming to efficiently reply to aggressive components resembling costs, promotional incentives, community efficiency and high quality, and evolving client preferences; failure to make the most of, or reply to rivals’ use of, developments in know-how, together with synthetic intelligence, and deal with adjustments in client demand; the shortcoming to implement our enterprise technique; opposed circumstances in the U.S. and worldwide economies, together with inflation and altering rates of interest in the markets in which we function; adjustments to worldwide commerce and tariff insurance policies and associated financial and different impacts; cyberattacks impacting our networks or methods and any ensuing monetary or reputational impression; our means to implement enterprise transformation initiatives and obtain their anticipated advantages; system failures and disruptions to our networks and operations and any ensuing monetary, reputational or enterprise impression; disruption of our key suppliers’ or distributors’ provisioning of services or products, together with because of geopolitical components, public well being crises, pure disasters or excessive climate circumstances; materials opposed adjustments in labor issues and any ensuing monetary or operational impression; injury to our popularity or manufacturers; adjustments in the regulatory surroundings in which we function, together with any improve in restrictions on our means to function our networks or companies; allegations relating to the discharge of hazardous supplies or pollution into the surroundings from our, or our predecessors’, community belongings and any associated authorities investigations, regulatory developments, litigation, penalties and different legal responsibility, remediation and compliance prices, operational impacts or reputational injury; vital quantity of excellent debt; vital litigation and any ensuing materials bills incurred in defending in opposition to lawsuits or paying awards or settlements; an opposed change in the scores afforded our debt securities by nationally accredited scores organizations or opposed circumstances in the credit score markets affecting the fee, together with rates of interest, and/or availability of additional financing; vital will increase in profit plan prices or decrease funding returns on plan belongings; adjustments in tax legal guidelines or laws, or in their interpretation, or challenges to our tax positions, ensuing in extra tax expense or liabilities; adjustments in accounting assumptions that regulatory companies, together with the SEC, might require or that outcome from adjustments in the accounting guidelines or their software, which might outcome in an impression on earnings; our means to return capital to shareholders, together with the quantity, timing, and impact of share repurchases and dividends; and dangers related to mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and different strategic transactions, together with our means to acquire price financial savings and different synergies and anticipated advantages of accomplished transactions throughout the anticipated time interval or in any respect.

Verizon’s Transformation Actions Deliver Growth & Profitability in 1Q26; Company Raises Adjusted EPS Guidance | News Release