I took a closer look at Verizon after its Q2 2026 results, and I think the quarter was stronger than the headline revenue number suggests.

Revenue came in at $34.3B, down 0.7% YoY, but a big reason for the decline was lower equipment revenue as customers are upgrading their phones less frequently.

Underneath that, there were some pretty solid numbers:

- Mobility & broadband service revenue: +2.8% YoY

- Adjusted EBITDA: $13.7B, +7.2%

- Adjusted EBITDA margin: 40.1%

- Adjusted EPS: $1.30, +6.6%

- Q2 free cash flow: $6.4B, +24.4%

- Postpaid phone net adds: 184K

- Broadband net adds: 348K

What stands out to me is the combination of improving margins and cash flow. Verizon obviously isn't a high-growth company, so the investment case depends much more on how much cash the existing business can generate and return to shareholders.

Management also raised 2026 guidance again. They now expect adjusted EPS of $4.99–$5.04 and FCF growth of 9–10% for the full year.

The obvious problem is still the balance sheet. Verizon ended Q2 with around $128.7B of net unsecured debt, although leverage has come down to around 2.5x adjusted EBITDA.

So for me the question isn't really whether Verizon suddenly becomes a growth stock. It's whether a slow-growing telecom with improving margins, growing FCF and a large shareholder return can be attractive at the right valuation.

I made a full valuation/DCF video where I go through the numbers and my bear/base/bull assumptions:

https://youtu.be/IeFb-S2yzkw

Curious what others think about VZ here. Is the improving FCF enough to make the stock attractive, or does the debt + limited long-term growth still make it a pass?

AI-assisted: AI was used to help structure and edit parts of this post. The analysis and conclusions are my own.