Verizon Lifts FY26 Outlook After Higher Q3; Signs $2 Bln AI Deal With AWS; Stock Drops

(RTTNews) - Telecom major Verizon Communications Inc. on Monday reported higher third-quarter results and raised fiscal 2026 forecast.

Further, the company announced that it has signed an agreement valued at more than $2.0 billion with Amazon Web Services or AWS to expand its AI Infrastructure.

In the early morning trading on the NYSE, VZ shares were losing around 2.34 percent, trading at $43.62.

Verizon said the partnership with AWS establishes a commercial framework to scale distributed compute and meet the real-time demands of agentic and generative AI workloads.

Regarding the results, Dan Schulman, Verizon CEO, stated, "One year into our transformation, Verizon is fundamentally stronger operationally, financially, and competitively. ...We are continuing to raise the bar and we are only one year into a multi-year growth story."

Looking ahead for the fourth quarter, the company projects mobility and broadband service revenue to grow approximately 4.0 percent.

For fiscal 2026, the company now projects adjusted earnings per share in a range of $5.04 to $5.06, or 7.0 to 7.5 percent growth year-over-year, up from prior outlook of 6.0 to 7.0 percent.

Mobility and broadband service revenue is now projected in upper half of previous annual guidance of 2.5 to 3.0 percent growth.

Postpaid phone net additions are now estimated in a range of 1.1 million to 1.2 million, up from prior outlook's upper half of 750,000 to 1.0 million, representing an increase of more than three times compared to 2025.

The company said it continues to anticipate total fiber passings to exceed 32 million by year-end, remaining on track toward a target of 40 to 50 million fiber passings over the medium term.

In addition, for 2026, Verizon continues to expect capital expenditures of $16.0 billion to $16.5 billion, inclusive of success-based investments for AI Connect.

In third-quarter, Verizon reported net income attributable of $5.20 billion, a 5 percent increase from $4.95 billion a year ago. Earnings per share was $1.25, up 6.8 percent from $1.17 last year.

Adjusted earnings per share were $1.31, up 8.3 percent year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA was $13.8 billion, up 8.0 percent year-over-year, representing the highest quarterly result the company has ever reported.

Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA margin grew to 40.2 percent from 37.8 percent last year.

Third-quarter total operating revenue was $34.31 billion, up 1.5 percent from $33.82 billion a year ago.

Mobility and broadband service revenue grew 2.9 percent to $23.5 billion, partly offset by a 9.0 percent year-over-year decline in equipment revenue primarily from significantly lower upgrade volumes.

During the third quarter, Verizon delivered 406,000 postpaid phone net additions, a more than 820.0 percent increase year-over-year, the strongest third-quarter performance in five years.

The company added 137,000 postpaid net accounts, marking its best performance in over a decade.

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