The Week

Verizon (VZ) gained 1.31% this week to close at $50.10, outperforming the S&P 500 by roughly 0.82 percentage points. Trading was choppy but with an upward tilt. Monday opened at $49.49, pushed to $50.28, and closed at $50.15. Tuesday edged up to $50.25. Wednesday hit the week’s high of $50.78 before settling at $50.19. Thursday broke below $50, sliding to $49.12, the week’s low, and closed at $49.43. Friday bounced 1.5% to end at $50.10. The weekly range was 3.35%, and average daily volume of 18.75m shares sat about 20% below the median.

Key Events

The main story was the Google Cloud tie-up. On 24 August Alphabet’s Google Cloud said it would partner with Verizon to scale enterprise AI deployment using its Gemini models, lifting the stock 1% that day. By 25 August Verizon hit a record high as the Gemini partnership made the rounds. On 26 August Verizon Business took the top spot in JD Power’s customer satisfaction ranking for large enterprise and medium business internet service. On 27 August AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile successfully fended off a patent lawsuit from Asus. A handful of institutional portfolio moves came through during the week — GSA Capital took a $1.33m stake, Russell Investments trimmed, Mitsubishi UFJ added 315,546 shares — all routine position adjustments.

Analyst Ratings

Across the 26 institutions covering Verizon, 8 rate it buy, 2 overweight, and 16 hold, with no underweight or sell ratings. The consensus rating is buy. The consensus target price sits at $51.56, about 2.9% above the current $50.10. Targets range widely, from $44 to $71, a band of roughly $27. Verizon ranks 5th out of 57 telecom services names in industry ratings, above both the industry mean of 7 and the median of 4. Its standing reflects a comparatively favourable distribution of buy and overweight ratings.

The Week Ahead

Next week’s focus is on US macro data. On 31 August the Dallas Fed manufacturing business activity index lands, with the prior reading at 1.3. On 1 September the S&P Global manufacturing PMI final print, ISM manufacturing PMI and JOLTS job openings all arrive, with ISM expected at 55.2 versus a prior 55.6 and job openings forecast at 7.3m. On 2 September ADP private payrolls and factory orders follow. For Verizon itself, the fiscal Q3 2026 earnings release is set for 20 October pre-market, with consensus estimates at $1.2889 EPS and $34.8b revenue. No company-specific calendar events are due next week.

In Short

Verizon rode the Google Cloud AI partnership to outperform the broader market and touch record highs this week. Analyst ratings lean constructive, with a buy consensus and a target only modestly above spot, though the spread between the highest and lowest targets is exceptionally wide. Valuation multiples sit at roughly 12.87x P/E and 2x P/B. The latest trading day showed large-lot money tilting to the sell side. The key question now is whether the AI partnership translates into measurable business growth, and how macro readings and sector rotation affect capital flows into telecoms.

This article is generated by LongbridgeAI from market data, for information only and not investment advice.