Verizon Communications Inc. will report first-quarter earnings before the opening bell on Monday, April 27, putting vz stock in focus as investors wait for a read on wireless demand and revenue growth. Analysts expect the company to post earnings of $1.21 per share on revenue of $34.86 billion.
That profit estimate would top the $1.19 per share Verizon delivered in the year-ago period, while the revenue forecast would rise from $33.48 billion a year earlier. The report lands after Barclays analyst Kannan Venkateshwar on March 31 kept an Equal-Weight rating on Verizon and lifted his price target to $47 from $43.
Verizon also enters the report with a 5.99% annual dividend yield, one of the main reasons income investors keep watching the name. The quarterly payout is 70.75 cents per share, or $2.83 a year. Based on those figures, an investor would need about 424 shares, or $20,021 worth of Verizon stock, to generate $100 in monthly dividend income, and roughly 2,120 shares, or $100,106, to produce $500 a month.
Those income figures are useful only as a snapshot. Dividend yield moves with the stock price and the payout, so the income tied to vz stock can change over time even if the dividend itself holds steady. Monday's earnings release should show whether Verizon can support both its cash return story and its growth case at the same time.
