Verizon Communications (VZ) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Verizon Communications (VZ) closed at $33.53 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.77% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.07%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.02%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.01%.

Heading into today, shares of the largest U.S. cellphone carrier had gained 1.84% over the past month, outpacing the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 1.5% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.38% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Verizon Communications as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be October 24, 2023. On that day, Verizon Communications is projected to report earnings of $1.20 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 9.09%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $33.46 billion, down 2.27% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.73 per share and revenue of $133.56 billion, which would represent changes of -8.69% and -2.4%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Verizon Communications. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.02% lower. Verizon Communications is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Verizon Communications currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 7.15. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 10.91, so we one might conclude that Verizon Communications is trading at a discount comparatively.

Meanwhile, VZ's PEG ratio is currently 2.04. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Wireless National was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.87 at yesterday's closing price.

The Wireless National industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 211, putting it in the bottom 17% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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