Verizon Gains Momentum in the Wireless Vertical: Will it Persist?
Verizon Communications, Inc. VZ is witnessing significant 5G adoption and fixed wireless broadband momentum. In the first quarter of 2025, the company recorded 2.4 million wireless retail postpaid gross ads and 3.6 million wireless postpaid upgrades. Verizon's 5G network is built upon three fundamental drivers to deliver the full potential of next-generation wireless technology. These include massive spectrum holdings, particularly in the millimeter-wave bands for faster data transfer, end-to-end deep fiber resources and the ability to deploy a large number of small cells. The company is steadily accelerating the availability of 5G Ultra-Wideband network across the country.
It holds a total of 2,035 MHz of spectrum with the acquisition of C-band spectrum. The C-band spectrum offers greater coverage for 5G networks and greater speeds than on low-band spectrum and paves the way to provide differentiated service of 5G Ultra-Wideband service to millions of customers. The company has formed several strategic partnerships to boost its 5G capability.
It has collaborated with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies to demonstrate a remarkable 480 Mbps uplink speed using sub-6 GHz spectrum. Faster uplink speed is critical for a wide range of use cases such as AI-driven applications, smart surveillance and industrial automation, augmented reality and more. The company also achieved an impressive download speed of 5.5 Gbps utilizing carrier aggregation and 5G virtualization. Verizon collaborated with Samsung Electronics and MediaTek during this venture. Such an initiative is expected to boost Verizon's competitive edge in the highly saturated U.S. wireless industry.
How Are Competitors Faring?
Verizon faces competition from T-Mobile, US, Inc. TMUS and AT&T, Inc. T in the wireless industry.
T-Mobile boasts a strong position in the 5G market. The company's 5G network covers 98% or 330 million people in the country. T-Mobile continues to deploy 5G with the mid-band 2.5 GHz spectrum from Sprint. The 2.5 GHz provides fast delivery, superfast speeds and extensive coverage with signals that go through walls and trees, unlike 5G networks, which are controlled by the mmWave spectrum.
AT&T is also aggressively expanding its 5G network, currently covering 295 million people nationwide. Its 5G service entails the utilization of millimeter wave spectrum for deployment in dense pockets, while in suburban and rural areas, the company intends to deploy 5G on mid and low-band spectrum holdings. AT&T 5G+ utilizes high-band spectrum to provide super-fast speed and is more responsive to the most demanding apps and services, making it ideal for high-traffic areas and large-scale venues and airports. The 5G+ is expected to drive customer addition in the long run.
VZ's Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates
Verizon has gained 8.8% over the past year compared with the Wireless National industry's growth of 28.3%.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Going by the price/earnings ratio, the company's shares currently trade at 9.05 forward earnings, down from 13.34 for the industry but above the stock's mean of 8.95. It carries a Value Score of A.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Earnings estimates for 2025 have declined 0.21% to $4.69 over the past 60 days, while the same for 2026 has remained unchanged at $4.86.
Verizon currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days
Just released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers "Most Likely for Early Price Pops."
Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +23.5% per year. So be sure to give these hand picked 7 your immediate attention.
See them now >>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
AT&T Inc. (T): Free Stock Analysis Report
Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ): Free Stock Analysis Report
T-Mobile US, Inc. (TMUS): Free Stock Analysis Report
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Globe and Mail
27 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
1 Magnificent High-Yield Stock Down 55% to Buy and Hold Forever
Headline-grabbing news events often push investors into emotional investing decisions. That's exactly what is taking place today with regard to tariffs. The investor reaction to tariffs has pushed industry-leading industrial real estate investment trust (REIT) Prologis (NYSE: PLD) down 35% from its 2022 highs and led to an attractive yield of 3.7%. You can do even better, collecting a 4.7% yield, with this well-positioned industrial REIT that is down 55%. Here's what you need to know. Why are investors downbeat on Prologis? Prologis is an industrial REIT giant, with operations across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. It owns 5,900 buildings containing 1.3 billion square feet of space. But the key part of the story is where its buildings are located. Prologis has assets in just about every major transportation hub in the world, serving 6,500 customers looking to import and export goods. This is a huge business strength, but right now it is seen as a huge negative. That's because U.S. tariffs have upended international trade norms. That's pushed Prologis' stock price down and its yield up. This is definitely a short-term disruption, but it seems unlikely to become a permanent negative. The world is so interconnected today that the more likely outcome is that trade patterns shift and Prologis' diverse portfolio of assets is still highly valuable. Prologis is, indeed, an attractive dividend investment opportunity today. And yet there's an even more interesting story to be told with Rexford Industrial Realty (NYSE: REXR). Highly focused Rexford is deeply out of favor Like Prologis, Rexford owns industrial assets that are vital to international trade. The most important difference between the two REITs is that Rexford is focused on just one single market, Southern California. It owns 424 properties with 51 million square feet of space in them. The key here is that Southern California is the major gateway for Asian goods entering the U.S. market (and vice versa). That, of course, is the problem, given the high-profile tariff fight between the United States and China. The near-term uncertainty has led investors to abandon Rexford. But, like Prologis, it seems more likely that international trade will adjust to a new normal than stop entirely. That alone makes Rexford's lofty 4.7% dividend yield attractive, but there's more. Southern California is a supply-constrained market. That gives Rexford a strong negotiating position when signing leases. Rexford is also a skilled redeveloper, frequently buying older assets and upgrading them so that they are more modern and desirable. That also helps its ability to raise rents. To be fair, the highly concentrated nature of Rexford's business does make it riskier than more diversified Prologis. But unless you believe international trade is going to stop, Rexford should come out the other side of the current uncertainty in a strong position. The opportunity to buy Rexford Industrial is in the here and now Oftentimes the best opportunities to buy a well-run company arise when Wall Street is overly pessimistic. The key is to figure out if the worry is about something that will linger or something that is likely to be temporary. The upheaval in international trade seems like a temporary issue, given how interconnected the world is today. For more conservative investors that could make Prologis an attractive option, while more aggressive investors will probably prefer higher-yielding Rexford industrial. And if you do buy one of these high-yield industrial REITs you'll probably end up owning it for the long term. Should you invest $1,000 in Prologis right now? Before you buy stock in Prologis, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Prologis wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $655,255!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $888,780!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is999% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to174%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025
Globe and Mail
42 minutes ago
- Globe and Mail
Can Nvidia Stock Double in 5 Years?
Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) has delivered extreme wealth for early investors, but it's also rewarded investors who bought shares fairly recently. Although it's been under pressure this year, it's up more than 740% over the past three years. That's far more than double. Buying Nvidia stock today would be a no-brainer for anyone who thinks it can replicate that success. But it wouldn't even have to achieve such a rare feat to be valuable to investors. If it doubles five years from now, it would likely beat the market and be a very valuable addition to almost any portfolio. Let's see if that might be in the cards. Enviable performance Nvidia has had an unbelievable run over the past few years since generative artificial intelligence (AI) became the hottest thing since sliced bread. Tech companies are racing to develop the most competitive AI platform or integrate some aspect of AI into their user interfaces. Companies now offer AI-generated content, images, summaries, and more, and they're using agentic AI to get more stuff done with less human intervention. What's common to all of these applications is that they need powerful chips to make the magic happen. There are two basic parts of bringing generative AI to life. One is training, or the input stage, where large language models (LLM) scan tons of data to build their knowledge base. The other is inference, where the LLMs "infer" what's being asked or prompted to deliver the required output. Nvidia also services other industries with its powerful platform, including gaming, which is what drove higher sales before generative AI heated up. Nvidia has been unstoppable. In the fiscal 2026 first quarter (ended April 27), sales increased 69% over last year. Earnings per share (EPS) were $0.81, including a charge it took for shipments it couldn't send to China because of U.S. policy. Even with the $0.15-per-share impact, Nvidia's EPS were well above last year's figure. Unusual opportunities As LLMs become more stable and effective, they're now going past inference to reasoning, which is a more developed stage of inference that takes a bit longer, but produces better results. Instead of popping out instant answers, LLMs that use reasoning might take a few seconds to "think" and then respond. To keep up with the ever-increasing demands for powerhouse chips, Nvidia continues to develop more powerful technology. The Blackwell model has given way to Blackwell Ultra, and Nvidia is planning on launching new technology, called Rubin, in 2026. "AI inference token generation has surged tenfold in just one year," CEO Jensen Huang said, "and as AI agents become mainstream, the demand for AI computing will accelerate." Clients use these chips to power huge data centers where all of this is taking place, and big AI-using companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta Platforms are building data centers. Nvidia's data center revenue outpaced total revenue in the first quarter, up 73% from last year. Nvidia has the best and most powerful chips, and it has the lead in this market by a wide margin. Estimates put it somewhere between 70% and 95% of the AI chip market, and as the opportunity grows, it's easy to see how much it could benefit Nvidia. Priced to buy Despite its lofty ambitions and premier performance, Nvidia stock isn't very expensive. At the current price, it trades at only 25 of next year's earnings estimates. That gives the stock extra room to increase without becoming unreasonably expensive, making it easier to imagine scenarios where it can double your money. From a sales perspective, it's fairly expensive, trading at 23 times trailing-12-month sales. That's a premium valuation for the growth that it has reported. To imagine doubling your money, you'd have to keep that ratio constant, because it isn't likely to rise. Keeping it constant, Nvidia would have to report a compound annual growth rate of 15% to double over five years. That seems very doable, considering its current performance and future opportunities. And even if it can't sustain such a high price-to-sales ratio, it can probably achieve higher than 15% growth over the next five years, which means it can double even at a lower ratio. All this means Nvidia stock is likely to double over the next five years -- and it's very possible that it could do it even sooner. Should you invest $1,000 in Nvidia right now? Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $655,255!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $888,780!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor 's total average return is999% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to174%for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join Stock Advisor. See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 John Mackey, former CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Randi Zuckerberg, a former director of market development and spokeswoman for Facebook and sister to Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Jennifer Saibil has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
As disinformation and hate thrive online, YouTube quietly changed how it moderates content
Social Sharing YouTube, the world's largest video platform, appears to have changed its moderation policies to allow more content that violates its own rules to remain online. The change happened quietly in December, according to The New York Times, which reviewed training documents for moderators indicating that a video could stay online if the offending material did not account for more than 50 per cent of the video's duration — that's double what it was prior to the new guidelines. YouTube, which sees 20 million videos uploaded a day, says it updates its guidance regularly and that it has a "long-standing practice of applying exceptions" when it suits the public interest or when something is presented in an educational, documentary, scientific or artistic context. "These exceptions apply to a small fraction of the videos on YouTube, but are vital for ensuring important content remains available," YouTube spokesperson Nicole Bell said in a statement to CBC News this week. But in a time when social media platforms are awash with misinformation and conspiracy theories, there are concerns that YouTube is only opening the door for more people to spread problematic or harmful content — and to make a profit doing so. YouTube isn't alone. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, dialled back its content moderation earlier this year, and Elon Musk sacked Twitter's moderators when he purchased the platform in 2022 and rebranded it as X. "We're seeing a race to the bottom now," Imran Ahmed, CEO for the U.S.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate, told CBC News. "What we're going to see is a growth in the economy around hate and disinformation." Meta's move away from fact checking could have dangerous consequences, experts warn 5 months ago Duration 2:05 Facebook and Instagram's parent-company Meta is getting rid of fact checkers on the platforms and will instead rely on users to comment on accuracy, but experts warn the move will likely increase the spread of misinformation. Public interest vs public harm YouTube's goal is "to protect free expression," Brooks said in her statement, explaining that easing its community guidelines "reflect the new types of content" on the platform. For example, she said, a long-form podcast containing one short clip of violence may no longer need to be removed. The T imes reported Monday that examples presented to YouTube staff included a video in which someone used a derogatory term for transgender people during a discussion about hearings for U.S. President Donald Trump's cabinet appointees, and another that shared false information about COVID-19 vaccines but that did not outright tell people not to get vaccinated. A platform like YouTube does have to make some "genuinely very difficult decisions" when moderating content, says Matt Hatfield, executive director of the Canadian digital rights group OpenMedia. He believes platforms do take the issue seriously, but he says there's a balance between removing harmful or illegal content, such as child abuse material or clear incitements to violence, and allowing content to stay online, even if it's offensive to many or contains some false information. The problem, he says, is that social media platforms also "create environments that encourage some bad behaviour" among creators, who like to walk the line of what's acceptable. "The core model of these platforms is to keep you clicking, keep you watching, get you to try a video from someone you've never experienced before and then stick with that person." And that's what concerns Ahmed. He says these companies put profits over online safety and that they don't face consequences because there are no regulations forcing them to limit what can be posted on their platforms. He believes YouTube's relaxed policies will only encourage more people to exploit them. How well YouTube is moderating In a recent transparency report, YouTube said it had removed nearly 2.9 million channels containing more than 47 million videos for community guideline violations in the first quarter — that came after the reported policy change. The overwhelming majority of those, 81.8 per cent, were considered spam, but other reasons included violence, hateful or abusive material and child safety. Hatfield says there is a public interest in having harmful content like that removed, but that doesn't mean all controversial or offensive content must go. However, he says YouTube does make mistakes in content moderation, explaining that it judges individual videos in a sort of "vacuum" without considering how each piece of content fits into a broader context. "Some content can't really be fairly interpreted in that way." Regulations not a perfect solution Ahmed says companies should be held accountable for the content on their platforms through government regulation. He pointed to Canada's controversial but now-scuttled Online Harms Act, also known as Bill C-63, as an example. It proposed heavier sentences, new regulatory bodies and changes to a number of laws to tackle online abuse. The bill died when former prime minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation and prorogued Parliament back in January. Ahmed says he hopes the new government under Prime Minister Mark Carney will enact similar legislation. Hatfield says he liked parts of that act, but his group ultimately opposed it after it tacked on some other changes to the Criminal Code and Human Rights Act that he says were unrelated to the platforms. He says groups like OpenMedia would have liked to see a strategy addressing business models that encourage users to post and profit off of "lawful but awful" content. "We're not going to have a hate-free internet," he said. "We can have an internet that makes it less profitable to spread certain types of hate and misinformation."
