Verizon boosts annual profit forecast after surprise rise in wireless subscribers

By Harshita Mary Varghese

April 27 (Reuters) - ‌Verizon raised its ​annual ​profit forecast on Monday after revamped customer offers and bundled plans led to surprise first-quarter wireless subscriber additions, sending its shares up ‌4%.

With deals such as offering better terms to customers who brought ⁠in bills from rivals like AT&T and T-Mobile, Verizon worked to draw in paying subscribers as ‌part of a broader turnaround ‌push to revive wireless growth.

Verizon added 55,000 monthly bill-paying wireless subscribers in the quarter, its first net gains for the March-ended period in more than ​a decade.

Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had expected wireless subscribers to decrease by 81,809.

"The strong postpaid phone net adds result shows that (CEO) Dan Schulman is ⁠here to fight tooth and nail," analysts at New Street Research said.

"Anyone that doubted whether Verizon might achieve ​its guidance for the year should have no doubts after this quarter."

Schulman, who took charge as CEO in October, said Verizon ​is in talks with hyperscalers, cloud providers and ‌large enterprises to link its fiber and 5G assets to support AI infrastructure, with potential to generate billions in revenue.

The company ⁠now expects its total retail postpaid phone net additions for the year to be in the upper half of its forecast of 750,000 to 1 million.

Like AT&T, Verizon has ⁠leaned into discounted bundles combining high-speed broadband and wireless plans, a strategy aimed at boosting customer ​retention.

The company's total quarterly revenue came in at $34.4 billion, compared with estimates of $34.84 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Wireless service revenue growth for the quarter was impacted by customer ‌credits tied to a January service outage that lasted for about 10 hours, for which Verizon offered a $20 credit to ‌hundreds of thousands of customers.

Verizon now sees adjusted profit for 2026 between $4.95 and $4.99 per ⁠share, compared with its prior forecast ‌of between $4.90 and $4.95.

For the ​first quarter, Verizon reported an adjusted profit of $1.28 per share, compared with estimates of $1.20.

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by ‌Maju Samuel)

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