Verizon Communications Inc. Revenue & Financials

The most interesting number in Verizon's financials isn't the $138.2 billion in 2025 revenue. It's the $17.2 billion in net income sitting underneath $7 billion in annual interest expense. This company earns enormous profits and then hands a third of them to bondholders before shareholders see a dime. Revenue growth has been glacial: $126 billion in 2017, $134 billion in 2024, $138 billion in 2025. That's roughly 1.2% compound annual growth over eight years. For context, inflation alone ran faster than that. In real terms, Verizon has been shrinking. The stock market knows this — shares have underperformed the S&P 500 by a wide margin since 2018. What keeps investors around is the dividend. At roughly $11 billion annually, Verizon's payout yields above 6%. That's bond-like income from an equity. The company has increased its dividend for 18 consecutive years. But the payout ratio — dividends as a percentage of free cash flow — has been creeping toward uncomfortable levels as capex demands grow. The Frontier integration will pressure free cash flow for at least two years. Margins tell the real story of the business mix shift. Wireless service margins run 55%+. Equipment margins are near zero or negative. As Verizon pushes more aggressive device promotions to match T-Mobile, the equipment drag grows. The hope is that higher-tier plan adoption and broadband bundling offset the promotional cost. Q4 2025 showed 616,000 postpaid phone net additions — the best quarter since 2019 — suggesting Schulman's early moves are working. Whether that momentum holds through 2026 while integrating Frontier is the open question.