Verizon Raises 2026 Earnings Outlook as Postpaid Phone Adds Reach 406,000

Verizon raised its full-year 2026 earnings forecast Monday after adding 406,000 net postpaid phone connections in the third quarter, a sharp improvement in its core wireless business. The company now expects adjusted earnings of $5.04 to $5.06 per share, compared with its previous range of $4.99 to $5.04.

The October 26 results also prompted a higher subscriber forecast. Verizon now projects 1.1 million to 1.2 million postpaid phone net additions for the year, replacing an earlier expectation that additions would finish in the upper half of a 750,000-to-1 million range. It was the third consecutive quarter in which Verizon increased its full-year guidance.

The company reported $1.31 in third-quarter adjusted earnings per share, up from $1.21 a year earlier. Alongside the phone gains, Verizon added 137,000 net postpaid accounts, a separate measure of growth that matters because a single customer account can contain several phone lines. The figures were disclosed in Verizon’s third-quarter earnings announcement.

Higher guidance extends beyond earnings per share

The revised adjusted earnings outlook implies 7.0% to 7.5% year-over-year growth, versus the 6.0% to 7.0% increase Verizon projected in July. The new range begins at the upper end of the prior dollar forecast, indicating an improvement in management’s expectations rather than merely a narrower range of possible results.

Verizon raised its expected growth in operating cash flow to 3.5% to 5.0% for the year, from 2.0% to 4.0%. It also said free cash flow should grow by nearly 12%, compared with the previous expectation of 9.0% to 10.0%. Both figures are forward-looking estimates, not cash that the company has already generated.

The revenue outlook was more measured. Verizon still sees annual mobility and broadband service revenue growing 2.5% to 3.0%, but now expects the result to fall in the upper half of that range. Management forecasts approximately 4.0% growth in that revenue category in the fourth quarter, an acceleration from the pace reported so far this year.

Planned capital expenditure remained at $16.0 billion to $16.5 billion for 2026, including investments tied to its AI Connect business. The higher free-cash-flow forecast therefore comes without a corresponding increase in the full-year capital spending range. Adjusted EPS and free cash flow are non-GAAP measures; Verizon cautioned that it cannot provide a complete reconciliation for certain forecasts because potential special items cannot reasonably be predicted.

Postpaid phone growth is accompanied by lower churn

Third-quarter postpaid phone net additions more than doubled the 184,000 reported in the second quarter. Verizon said the latest figure was more than 820% above the year-earlier quarter and represented its best third-quarter performance in five years. The 137,000 net account additions were its strongest quarterly account result in more than a decade.

The distinction between phone connections and accounts is important. A postpaid phone net addition measures the change in phone lines after additions and losses, not necessarily a unique person signing up for service. Net account additions track customer billing relationships. Reporting both measures makes it easier to see whether growth reflects broader account gains as well as additional connected devices.

Retention improved at the same time. Overall postpaid phone churn fell by four basis points from a year earlier to 0.94%, while consumer postpaid phone churn also declined by four basis points to 0.87%. Lower churn means a smaller proportion of existing phone connections were lost during the period, reducing the number of new additions required simply to keep the subscriber base steady.

Verizon reported that its promotional acquisition costs fell 41% year over year, while promotional retention costs declined 30%. Chief Executive Dan Schulman has emphasized simpler plans, the company’s loyalty program and less dependence on large handset subsidies. Those reported cost reductions help explain the financial emphasis of the strategy, although the results alone do not establish how much of the subscriber increase came from any one initiative.

The scale of phone additions matters because postpaid service generates recurring monthly revenue. Keeping connections for longer can support that revenue without an equivalent increase in spending to replace departing customers. Whether the current pace persists will become clearer in the fourth-quarter figures, particularly if lower churn and reduced promotional spending continue together.

Service revenue grows despite weaker handset sales

Verizon’s total third-quarter operating revenue was $34.3 billion, up 1.5% from a year earlier. Within that total, mobility and broadband service revenue rose 2.9% to about $23.5 billion. That growth rate improved from 2.8% in the second quarter and 1.6% in the first, giving the company a sequence of modest but steady increases in its principal service-revenue measure.

Phone equipment sales moved in the opposite direction. Equipment revenue declined 9.0% year over year as customers upgraded devices less frequently. Verizon said people are keeping handsets for longer and pointed to its own decision to reduce device subsidies. The weaker hardware result limited overall revenue growth even as service revenue improved.

Profitability advanced more quickly than sales. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA rose 8.0% to $13.8 billion, with the adjusted EBITDA margin increasing to 40.2% from 37.8% a year earlier. Those are management’s adjusted operating-profitability measures, distinct from net income under generally accepted accounting principles. The gap between revenue growth and adjusted EBITDA growth is consistent with the company’s emphasis on controlling promotional and other operating costs.

On a reported basis, consolidated net income increased 5.2% to $5.3 billion. Earnings per share were $1.25, up from $1.17 in the third quarter of 2025, while adjusted EPS increased 8.3% to $1.31. The adjusted measure excludes special items and is the basis for the newly raised full-year earnings forecast.

Broadband gains and cash flow add to the quarter

Verizon also recorded 314,000 broadband net additions, consisting of 159,000 fixed-wireless-access connections and 155,000 fiber connections. In the second quarter, it had added 348,000 broadband connections, including the same number of fiber connections. The comparison shows that fiber additions held steady sequentially even as the combined broadband total declined.

Its broadband connection base reached 17.4 million by the end of September. Verizon expects the number of locations its fiber network passes to exceed 32 million by year-end and has set a medium-term target of 40 million to 50 million. Fiber passings indicate the reach of a network, rather than the number of households or businesses that have subscribed.

Cash generation gave the guidance increase additional support. Operating cash flow reached $11.5 billion in the quarter, up 2.2% year over year, and free cash flow rose 12.1% to $7.8 billion. Through the first nine months of 2026, free cash flow totaled $18.0 billion, a 14.3% increase, while capital spending totaled $11.9 billion.

The balance sheet remains an important part of the picture. Total unsecured debt was $136.1 billion at quarter-end, slightly below $136.5 billion in June, and net unsecured debt declined to $123.7 billion from $128.7 billion. Verizon also reported $12.8 billion returned to shareholders through September, including $8.8 billion in dividends and $4.0 billion in share repurchases. Its full-year repurchase expectation remains up to $4.5 billion.

Separately, Verizon said it signed a commercial agreement valued at more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services to expand distributed computing infrastructure for artificial intelligence workloads. It provides a potential additional use for Verizon’s network assets, but the company did not present that agreement as revenue already earned in the third quarter.

For the final quarter of 2026, the company is forecasting approximately 4% growth in mobility and broadband service revenue. That result, together with its full-year phone-addition and cash-flow totals, will show how closely the year finishes to the newly increased guidance.