Verizon sees wireless subscriber growth in Q4 earnings

Verizon (VZ) shares are popping off after fourth-quarter earnings topped estimates driven by better-than-expected wireless subscriber additions, snapping three consecutive quarters of declining subscriber counts.

Yahoo Finance's Seana Smith and Brad Smith deep dive into the telecoms giant's stock performance and what to expect for the company in the coming months.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Eyek Ntekim.

Video transcript

SEANA SMITH: All right. Verizon is the top trending ticker here at "Yahoo Finance." Look at that gains of almost 5% here about half an hour into the trading day. Now, the stock getting a boost after it reported better than expected earnings for the second quarter. Also, added new wireless subscribers, which is a boom, potentially, here for Verizon because we know it generates a good chunk of its revenue from its mobile unit. And getting the vibe on the street because we're getting analysts quick take here following these results, Brad. And the earnings call that just took place with Hans Vestberg making a couple of key comments here, the CEO of Verizon.

But my two takeaways is that the Street is pretty pleased with these results. KeyBanc saying, that the results did come in somewhat mixed. But they were positive about the fact that those phone net adds did beat the Street's expectations. And then also, Evercore saying that this was a healthy quarter here for the company. A lot of that driven by those subscriber ads. And really, pointing to the fact that there is some optimism here for Verizon in 2024.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah. Some swift reactions you got from analysts who were covering Verizon here this morning. One of them, vital knowledge, the big number in the Q4 report, as you were mentioning, still retail, postpaid, phone ads of 449,000 solidly above the Street's-- get this-- 229,000 forecasts. So healthy phone, net add number, and then the small guidance upside helping bolster the stock here today.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah. And certainly, putting this all in perspective, why this is such a huge deal, when we talk about the net adds that we're getting here for subscribers, Verizon is coming off three straight quarters in a row, where they did disappoint here. So the fact that we are seeing a bit of a turnaround here for the mobile customers, it could signal a bit of a turning point here for the company, and also in terms of the guide, what that means for future growth here. It could be bullish there. So a good reason or a big reason why we're seeing shares up just about 5%.