What Happened?
Shares of telecommunications giant Verizon (NYSE: VZ) fell 4.8% in the afternoon session after the company announced a surprise change in leadership, with former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman taking over as chief executive.
Schulman, who was already on Verizon's board, replaced Hans Vestberg, who had led the company since 2018. The move came as the telecommunications company faced challenges from slowing subscriber growth and increased competition in the wireless market. The stock's decline appeared to reflect investor uncertainty surrounding the sudden leadership transition. In the announcement, Verizon also reaffirmed its financial guidance for the full year.
The shares closed the day at $41.44, down 5.1% from previous close.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Verizon’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 3 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 7 months ago when the stock dropped 8% on the news that the firm guided for weaker wireless subscriber growth in the first quarter (2025) due to "off-season promotions by competitors."
Despite this, Verizon maintained its guidance for single-digit growth in annual phone upgrades, as it expected a rebound later in the year( 2025).
Verizon is up 3.3% since the beginning of the year, but at $41.52 per share, it is still trading 10.7% below its 52-week high of $46.49 from March 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Verizon’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $698.28.
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