Verizon Shares Pop 5% After Strong Customer Gains

By Will Feuer

Shares of Verizon Communications rose in premarket trading after the cell carrier reported its strongest gains of wireless postpaid phone customers in two years.

The stock rose nearly 5% to $41.35. Through Monday's close, shares were roughly flat over the past 12 months.

The readout from Verizon, the first major cell carrier to report for the fourth quarter, lifted shares of its peers. AT&T stock climbed about 2% in the premarket sessions while T-Mobile shares rose about 1%.

For the last three months of 2023, Verizon reported postpaid phone net additions of 449,000, up from 217,000 in the same period last year and above the 232,000 that analysts surveyed by FactSet expected.

The gains were also Verizon's strongest since the period in 2021, when the company added 558,000 of such customers, according to FactSet.

Verizon has been working to turnaround its struggling consumer unit and reinvigorate subscriber growth. Last year, the company shuffled its slate of available phone plans in a bid to make them more appealing and simple to customers.

Write to Will Feuer at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 23, 2024 08:30 ET (13:30 GMT)

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