NEW YORK, January 7, 2026, 20:26 EST — Market closed.
- Verizon shares slipped 0.4% at the close, then edged up in late trading
- Investors line up the next catalysts: U.S. payrolls on Jan. 9 and Verizon results on Jan. 30
- Dividend record date and a California hearing tied to the Frontier deal also sit on the near-term calendar
Verizon Communications Inc (VZ) shares fell 0.4% to $40.13 at Wednesday’s close and ticked up to $40.15 in late trading. The stock ranged from $39.99 to $40.80 and traded about 23.2 million shares.
The modest move leaves Verizon heading into the next session with one clear company catalyst: its fourth-quarter report on Jan. 30. Verizon said it will post results and give a business update on a webcast starting at 8 a.m. Eastern time.
Macro could still do the heavy lifting first. The S&P 500 ended down 0.34% on Wednesday as investors rotated back toward AI-linked megacaps and looked ahead to Friday’s U.S. payrolls report; “Buy tech and forget about it,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive of Longbow Asset Management. Reuters
Telecom names mostly softened with the broader tape. Verizon’s drop was smaller than AT&T’s 1.5% slide, while T-Mobile fell 0.7% on the day.
Income is still part of the Verizon story, and the next dividend date is close. Verizon said it will pay a quarterly dividend of 69 cents a share on Feb. 2 to shareholders of record as of Jan. 12, and CEO Dan Schulman called the payout “an iron clad reflection” of the company’s commitment. Verizon
Investors will also use the Jan. 30 call to test whether Verizon can keep its cash targets intact. In its last quarterly update, Verizon reiterated 2025 free cash flow — cash left after capital spending — of $19.5 billion to $20.5 billion, and said capital expenditures, or capex, should land within or below $17.5 billion to $18.5 billion; it also reported 7,000 consumer postpaid phone net losses in the third quarter.
Another near-term date sits outside earnings. A California Public Utilities Commission ruling scheduled an in-person oral argument on Jan. 12 in the proceeding related to the transfer of control in Verizon’s proposed Frontier transaction.
But the setup cuts both ways. If wireless promotions stay aggressive into early 2026, subscriber trends can sag and marketing costs can rise, and that can feed through to the free-cash-flow line that dividend holders care about.
With the market closed, the next markers are Friday’s U.S. payrolls report on Jan. 9, then Verizon’s Jan. 12 dividend record date and the Jan. 30 earnings report and webcast.
