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Verizon (VZ) is nicely higher after reporting its Q1 results this morning. The telecom giant delivered a solid EPS beat, while revenue increased 2.9% yr/yr to $34.40 bln, missing expectations. However, VZ raised its FY26 EPS guidance above expectations to $4.95-4.99, lifted its postpaid phone net add outlook to the upper half of its prior range, and showed improving subscriber trends, which appears to be driving the positive reaction.

• Postpaid phone net adds of 55,000 marked a 344,000 yr/yr improvement and VZ's first positive Q1 postpaid phone net add result since 2013. This was driven by better Consumer and Business performance and a higher mix of new-to-Verizon gross adds.
• Additionally, Consumer postpaid phone churn was 90 bps, a sequential improvement of 5 bps from Q4, and continued to improve throughout the quarter, with March churn falling below 85 bps.
• Shifting to broadband, VZ delivered 341,000 net adds, including 214,000 fixed wireless access (FWA) adds and 127,000 fiber net adds, bringing total broadband subscribers to approximately 16.8 mln.
• Mobility and broadband service revenue increased 1.6% yr/yr to $22.9 bln, with wireless service revenue declining 1.0% to $20.6 bln. Wireless service revenue included an 80 bps headwind from customer credits due to the January network outage, as well as continued promotional pressure and the roll-off of prior-year pricing benefits.
• Importantly, VZ expects Q1 to be the low point for mobility and broadband service revenue growth, with March already growing in the middle of its 2-3% annual guidance range.

Briefing.com Analyst Insight

This was an encouraging quarter from VZ and showed further progress toward CEO Dan Schulman's plan to drive more profitable volume growth. Subscriber momentum carried over from Q4, with VZ delivering its first positive Q1 postpaid phone net add result in 13 years, while churn also improved throughout the quarter. The quality of revenue is also improving as VZ provides more value to customers, helping drive better loyalty, lower acquisition and retention costs, and stronger flow-through to earnings and free cash flow. That showed up in adjusted EPS growth of 7.6%, its strongest pace in more than four years, while adjusted EBITDA reached a company record. Revenue was softer, partly due to outage-related credits and prior pricing benefits rolling off, but March mobility and broadband service revenue was already back in the middle of its full-year growth range. The raised FY26 EPS and phone net add outlook also suggests greater confidence that its volume-led growth strategy is gaining traction. On a final note, the Frontier integration remains on track, supporting VZ's broader fiber and convergence strategy, with longer-term opportunities tied to AI infrastructure demand.