Verizon sticks by full-year forecast

Article Excerpt

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC. $37 is your #1 Income Buy for 2023. The telecom provider (New York symbol VZ; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector, Shares outstanding: 4.2 billion; Market cap: $155.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.2; Dividend yield: 7.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.verizon.com) raised its quarterly dividend by 2.0% with the November 2022 payment. The new annual rate of $2.61 a share yields a high 7.1%. In the first quarter of 2023, Verizon added 321,000 new wireless consumer subscribers under long-term contracts (net of cancellations). That’s a big improvement over a net drop of 126,000 a year earlier. However, due to a decline in business wireline users and lower sales of new equipment, revenue fell 1.9%, to $32.91 billion from $33.55 billion a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, per-share earnings declined 11.1%, to $1.20 from $1.35, on higher interest and depreciation charges. Despite the lower first quarter profits, Verizon still expects its full-year earnings will range from $4.55 to $4.85 a share. The stock trades at just 7.9…