Does a Major Disruption Like Wednesday’s Verizon Outage Even Move the Needle for VZ Stock? What You Need to Know.

Core Viewpoint - Verizon Communications experienced a significant service outage that affected cellular data and voice services, raising concerns among customers and shareholders about the company's operational reliability and cybersecurity [1][2]. Company Overview - Verizon is one of the largest telecom companies in the U.S., with 210 million wireless customers, 10.6 million broadband customers, and 31 million business accounts [3]. - The company has a market capitalization of $166 billion, making it the third-largest U.S. telecom by market cap, following T-Mobile US and AT&T [4]. Financial Performance - Verizon's stock dropped nearly 3% during the outage, and while it has not fully recovered, shares are up nearly 2.5% over the last year, underperforming the S&P 500, which is up 17% [3][4]. - The company offers a generous dividend yield of 7%, paying $0.69 per share, resulting in a total return of 10.1% over the last 12 months when dividends are considered [5]. Leadership Changes - Verizon is under new leadership, with Daniel Schulman taking over as CEO in October 2025, who has committed to implementing changes to improve the company's stock price [5]. - Schulman acknowledged that Verizon is not meeting its potential and is not delivering the expected shareholder returns, despite significant investments in network leadership [6].