Verizon Full Dividend History & Analysis (VZ)

Verizon Communications is a leading provider of communication and technology services, offering wireless, broadband, and fiber-optic products to consumers, businesses, and government entities.

The company operates through two main segments: the Consumer segment, which focuses on wireless services (Verizon and TracFone), broadband (including 5G), and related devices; and the Business segment, which delivers wireless, wireline, networking, security, and IoT services to businesses and government customers.

The Consumer segment contributed 77% of Verizon’s fiscal year 2023 revenue, while Verizon’s Business segment contributed the remaining 23% of the company’s revenue.

VZ’s dividend yield for the last 12 months is 6.0%, which means that investors would get $60 in dividends per year for every $1,000 invested in the stock. The dividend yield is found by dividing the company’s dividend over the last twelve months, $2.66, by the stock’s share price, $44.62, which is how we arrive at a dividend yield of 6.0%.

VZ’s dividend yield is currently about 19.4% higher than its 5-year average:

It’s generally better to buy a stock when its dividend yield is higher than its historical average because a stock’s dividend yield rises as its share price falls.

Buying high-quality dividend stocks during periods when the dividend yield is higher than average can be an effective investing strategy.

Notable Historic Dividend Yields:

• Last fiscal year average dividend yield: 7.0%
• 3-year average dividend yield: 6.3%
• 5-year average dividend yield: 5.5%
• 10-year average dividend yield: 5.0%

 

Check out Verizon Communications’s full dividend history >>>

• Verizon distributes its dividend every quarter, meaning it pays one-quarter of its annual dividend once every three months.
• Verizon’s next ex-dividend date is estimated to be in early January 2025, which implies that investors who purchase shares before that date will be eligible to receive dividends on those shares on the next dividend payment date.
• Verizon’s next dividend payment date is estimated to be early February 2025. This means that any long-term shareholders or new investors who buy their shares before Verizon’s next ex-dividend date in early January will receive dividends on their shares in early February 2025.

Dividend safety is important for investors because it measures a company’s ability to continue paying and increasing dividends to shareholders without stopping or reducing dividend payments.

Cutting dividends is highly frowned upon on Wall Street, so companies will generally only reduce or cut their dividend payments if they don’t have the financial means to continue paying dividends.

That’s why it’s important to judge a company’s financial health. A business that has a high dividend safety rating has strong earnings that can support dividend payments, so there’s a low risk of the company reducing its dividends.

Payout Ratio & Earnings Analysis

• LTM Dividends per Share: $2.66
• LTM Earnings per Share: $2.67
• LTM Payout Ratio: 99.0%

Verizon Communications has a payout ratio for the last twelve months of 99.0%, which indicates that 99.0% of its $2.67 in earnings per share were distributed as a $2.66 dividend over the last 12 months. 

A company with a high payout ratio above 90% could be at a greater risk of reducing or eliminating its dividend because it is returning nearly all its earnings to shareholders. This leaves little room to reinvest in the business or as a cushion against downturns.

Financial Health

Verizon has averaged a 61% payout ratio over the past 10 years:

Notable Historic Payout Ratios:

• LTM payout ratio: 99.0%
• 3-year average payout ratio: 67.7%
• 5-year average payout ratio: 62.5%
• 10-year average payout ratio: 60.7%

 

Check out Verizon Communications’s complete financial statements >>>

For the next fiscal year, Wall Street analysts expect Verizon Communications to have a dividend payout ratio of 58.5%.

This indicates that Verizon should be able to comfortably make its dividend payments for the next fiscal year.

It is worth noting that dividend safety can change over time, so it’s important to regularly monitor a company’s financial performance and dividend payment history.

Dividend growth is an important aspect of dividend investing because it means that dividends will grow over time, which helps to offset the erosive forces of inflation and boost total shareholder returns.

It also signals that a company prioritizes shareholders’ returns and shows that management has confidence that the company’s earnings will grow in the future.

The chart below shows how Verizon has grown dividends per share at a 2.0% 5-Year CAGR, which is a below average dividend growth rate:

Notable Dividend Growth Rates:

• Last Fiscal Year’s Dividend Growth: 1.9%
• 3-Year Dividend Growth: 2.0% CAGR
• 5-Year Dividend Growth: 2.0% CAGR
• 10-Year Dividend Growth: 2.3% CAGR

What truly matters for dividend investors is a company’s potential to continue growing its dividends, as this will determine whether Verizon Communications will be a reliable dividend stock.

Analysts expect Verizon Communications to grow its dividends per share at an average growth rate of 1.8% over the next 2 years:

View all Analyst Estimates for Verizon Communications >>>

Verizon Communications has increased its dividends to shareholders for 17 consecutive years.

This makes Verizon Communications a Dividend Champion. Verizon has a strong dividend track record.

Verizon’s 17-year dividend track record is even more impressive because the company was only formed 24 years ago when Bell Atlantic and GTE Corp merged in 2000.

The dividend history graph below shows a visual record of Verizon Communications’s dividend payments to shareholders over the past several years, and the chart below shows Verizon Communications’s history of quarterly dividend payments: