The 6%-Yielding Blue Chip Has a New Catalyst

Verizon (NYSE:VZ | VZ Price Prediction) pays a dividend yielding 6.01%. It now has two new growth drivers on top of that: the Frontier fiber network and early AI infrastructure revenue. Our 24/7 Wall St. price target for Verizon is $55.02 over the next 12 months.

24/7 Wall St. Price Target Summary

Our model’s confidence is high. Verizon trades at about 9x forward earnings, and management raised full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $4.99 to $5.04. The yield pays shareholders while they wait for fiber and AI revenue to show up in the numbers.

Six Straight Beats, Yet Shares Cooled in September

VZ is up 21.46% year to date but has fallen 6.27% over the past month and 2.55% over the past week. It also lagged competitors on Tuesday (MarketWatch). Shares sit about 8.4% below the $51.67 52-week high and 29.5% above the $36.55 low.

Second-quarter adjusted EPS of $1.30 beat the $1.27 consensus, making it the sixth consecutive beat. Revenue fell 0.7% to $34.25 billion because Verizon by design pulled back on device subsidies. Service revenues rose 3.5%, and free cash flow grew 27.12%.

Why Bulls See $57 and Beyond

Verizon closed the Frontier deal on January 20, 2026, which extended its fiber reach to 30M+ homes and businesses. Management expects more than 32 million fiber passings by year-end and more than $1 billion in run-rate cost savings by 2028. Churn is almost 30% less on converged plans.

AI adds the second drivers. Earlier this year, management said hyperscaler talks carried “the potential for multi billions in revenues.” CEO Dan Schulman said in the second quarter that “with the emergence of AI infrastructure revenue, we are fundamentally reshaping Verizon’s growth trajectory.”

Among analysts, 2 rate the stock Strong Buy, 7 Buy and 16 Hold, with no Sell ratings. Our bull case is $57.39.

Debt and Softer ARPA Could Cap the Rally

Unsecured debt totals $136.5 billion, and leverage rose to 2.5x from 2.2x. Postpaid ARPA (average revenue per account) fell 1.4%, and GAAP net income dropped 21.07%.

That decline largely reflects $1.8 billion in pre-tax special items. Management also expects to repay substantially all of Frontier’s debt by the end of the year. Our bear case is $48.38.

Verizon Screens Cheaper Than AT&T and T-Mobile

AT&T (NYSE:T) is Verizon’s closest rival in fiber-plus-wireless bundles. It added 432,000 postpaid phones last quarter, ahead of Verizon’s 184,000. The market pays a slightly higher multiple for that momentum and gets a lower yield in return.

T-Mobile (NASDAQ:TMUS) is the growth contrast, with service revenue up 9%. Our target implies about 11x forward EPS, which sits between AT&T and T-Mobile. That places the 24/7 Wall St. price target at a reasonable spot within the peer group.

Verizon Price Prediction 2026-2030

Our 24/7 Wall St. price target of $55.02 carries a buy rating at 90% confidence. What tips the scale for me is free cash flow guidance of $21.94 billion to $22.14 billion, which well funds the dividend.

The setup looks compelling to me if Verizon keeps paying down Frontier debt on schedule and puts numbers on AI deals. I’d grow conservative if ARPA keeps slipping while leverage stalls. On balance, I think the risk-reward favors shareholders.

These projections assume Verizon keeps executing on convergence and cutting debt. AI infrastructure contracts could push results above this path, while pricing pressure from rivals could pull them below it.

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