A Yield Few Blue Chips Match
Verizon is one of the highest-yielding stocks in the entire S&P 500. At a recent price near $48, its forward dividend of about $2.83 a share works out to a yield around 5.9%. That is close to five times the roughly 1.2% the S&P 500 pays.
The stock has traded between about $38 and $52 over the past year. Yield rises as price falls, so part of that big number reflects a share price the market has kept cheap, not just a generous policy.
Verizon trades near 11 times trailing earnings, well below the broad market. Income investors get paid to wait. The low multiple is also the market saying growth here is hard to find.
Nineteen Straight Years of Raises
Verizon lifted its dividend for the 19th year in a row in September 2025, the longest active streak among major U.S. telecom companies. The board declared the latest quarterly payout of $0.7075 a share on June 4, 2026.
The raises are small. The most recent bump was about 2%, and that has been the pattern for years. This is not a stock that doubles your income over a decade.
What it offers instead is direction. The payout has climbed every year through recessions, rate spikes, and a price that has mostly moved sideways. For a retiree who wants a check that keeps pace with inflation, slow and steady is the entire point.
Unlike a monthly payer such as Realty Income, Verizon sends the check four times a year, on a schedule it has not missed in two decades.
Is the Payout Safe?
The first test is earnings coverage. Verizon earned $4.06 a share in 2025 and pays out about $2.83, a payout ratio near 67%. That leaves a cushion, though a thinner one than a few years ago.
The better test is cash. Verizon generated more than $30 billion in free cash flow over the past year, well above the roughly $11 billion it pays in dividends. The check is funded by real cash, not by borrowing to cover it.
The catch is debt. Verizon carries net debt around 3.8 times EBITDA, one of the heaviest loads in the S&P 500, and it paid about $6.7 billion in interest last year. As long as cash flow holds, the dividend is safe. The debt is what limits how fast it can grow.
What Funds the Check
Verizon makes most of its money from monthly wireless bills. It ended 2025 with about $138 billion in revenue, up roughly 2.5% from the year before, and net income near $17 billion.
Wireless is a cash machine because customers pay every month and rarely switch carriers. That steady inflow is what lets the company commit to a dividend it has to fund every quarter, in good markets and bad.
The growth question is what that cash gets spent on. Verizon is pouring money into 5G and a national fiber build, expanded by the Frontier Communications acquisition it closed in January 2026 and the nearly 30 million fiber locations that came with it. Those projects eat cash that could otherwise lift the dividend faster.
How It Stacks Up Against AT&T and T-Mobile
AT&T is the closest comparison. It yields around 4.8% and trades near 8 times earnings, with a lower payout ratio close to 38%. AT&T cut its dividend in 2022, so its streak is short, but it has more room to raise from here.
T-Mobile sits at the other end. It pays a smaller yield near 2% and trades near 19 times earnings because investors treat it as a growth stock, not an income one. Its dividend is young and rising fast off a low base.
Verizon is the income choice of the three. The highest yield, the longest streak, and the slowest growth. Which one fits depends on whether you want the biggest check today or a smaller check that climbs faster.
The Real Question for Income Investors
The dividend itself is not the risk. Coverage is solid and the 19-year streak is real. The question is what you give up to collect it.
A near-6% yield that grows about 2% a year behaves like a bond. It works well if you need income now and can accept a stock that may not appreciate much. It works poorly if you are years from needing the cash and want the payout itself to compound faster.
Verizon's next test is the fiber build. If Frontier and 5G start throwing off more cash than they consume, the raises can speed up. Until then, the 19-year streak is a promise to keep paying, not a promise to pay much more.
