Verizon Communications Faces Nationwide Outage, Potential $2.8 Billion Customer Credits
Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst
Updated: 1h ago
0mins
Source: Benzinga
- Nationwide Service Disruption: Verizon experienced a nationwide outage on Wednesday, preventing over 140 million customers from accessing voice, text, or data services, which could lead to customer attrition and a crisis of trust in the brand.
- Customer Compensation Commitment: The company has pledged to provide $20 account credits to affected customers, potentially totaling over $2.8 billion, which, while not fully compensating for the inconvenience, demonstrates Verizon's commitment to customer satisfaction.
- Expected Financial Impact: Although Verizon's stock saw a slight increase on Wednesday, analysts anticipate that the outage will negatively affect the first-quarter financial results, particularly during the earnings report scheduled for January 30, which may become a focal point for analysts.
- Market Reaction Monitoring: Verizon's stock fell 1.3% to $39.30 on Thursday, indicating that investors are cautiously assessing the potential financial ramifications of the outage, with the market closely watching upcoming financial guidance and customer retention metrics.
Analyst Views on VZ
Wall Street analysts forecast VZ stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for VZ is 46.79 USD with a low forecast of 43.00 USD and a high forecast of 51.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.
16 Analyst Rating
5 Buy
11 Hold
0 Sell
Moderate Buy
Current: 39.830
Low
43.00
Averages
46.79
High
51.00
Current: 39.830
Low
43.00
Averages
46.79
High
51.00
About VZ
Verizon Communications Inc. is a holding company. The Company, through its subsidiaries, provides communications, technology, information and streaming products and services to consumers, businesses and government entities. Its Consumer segment provides wireless and wireline communications services. It also provides fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband through its 5G or 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) networks portfolio. The Company's Business segment provides wireless and wireline communications services and products, including FWA broadband, data, video and advanced communication services, corporate networking solutions, security and managed network services, local and long-distance voice services and network access to deliver various Internet of Things (IoT) services and products. It provides these products and services to businesses, public sector customers and wireless and wireline carriers across the U.S. and a subset of these products and services to customers around the world.
About the author
Emily J. Thompson
Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.
