CFRA, an independent research provider, has provided MT Newswires with the following research alert. Analysts at CFRA have summarized their opinion as follows:
We raise our 12-month target by $3 to $33, applying an EV/EBITDA multiple of 6.4x to our ’24 estimate, a discount to peers, reflecting our concerns over debt levels and loss of market share to competitors. We trim our ’24 EPS view by $0.05 to $4.58 and set ’25’s at $4.67. VZ reported Q4 operating EPS of $1.08 vs. $1.19, in line with the consensus. Q4 revenue declined 0.3%, driven by a 3.6% drop in the Business segment, due to a 12.1% decline in Wholesale and a 4.9% drop in Enterprise revenue, partially offset by 0.7% growth in the Consumer segment, driven by a 2.6% increase in Service revenue. Total wireless postpaid phone net adds were 449K, with 318K consumer adds and 131K business adds. VZ took a $5.8B write-down charge to its Business Wireline unit amid slowing growth. Overall results came in ahead of our expectations, but we are still concerned that VZ did nothing in ’23 to reduce debt, and we still feel its 5G network lags well behind competitors, which could harm it with enterprise customers this year.