Topic: How To Invest

Dividend Advisor Hotline – Friday, September 11, 2020

Article Excerpt

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC., $59.79, New York symbol VZ, is a buy. This U.S. telecom has 119.9 million wireless users, 10.2 million phone customers and 20.8 million Internet and TV subscribers. The company will raise its quarterly dividend with the November 2020 payment by 2.0%, to $0.6275 a share from $0.615. Verizon’s new annual rate of $2.51 yields a high 4.2%. The company has now increased its dividend each year for the past 14 years. Meantime, Verizon continues to roll out its ultrafast 5G wireless service. It has now launched 5G in 35 U.S. cities. It’s also offering 5G wireless home Internet access in six markets. In all, Verizon will spend $18 billion on upgrades to its networks in 2020. The company can comfortably afford those outlays—in the first half of 2020, its free cash flow (regular cash flow less capital expenditures) was $13.7 billion. That also gives its plenty of room for dividends, which totalled $5.04 billion during those six months (or 36.8% of…