Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, April 23, 2021

Article Excerpt

VERIZON COMMUNICATIONS INC., $57.30, New York symbol VZ; is your #1 Income buy for 2021. The company has 120.85 million wireless users (consumers and businesses) and 20.0 million residential phone, Internet and TV subscribers. Verizon has raised its dividend each year for the past 14 years. The latest increase came in November 2020 when the company raised your quarterly dividend by 2.0%, to $0.6275 from $0.6150. The new annual rate of $2.51 a share yields a high 4.4%. In the quarter ended March 31, 2021, the number of wireless subscribers under long-term contracts (net of cancellations) fell 178,000 due to strong competition from other carriers.  That was much worse than the consensus forecast for a decline of 121,700. However, more of its wireless customers are opting for premium plans with no download caps. More customers are also upgrading their phones. As a result, Verizon’s revenue in the quarter rose 4.0%, to $32.87 billion from $31.61 billion a year earlier. That beat the consensus forecast…