As previously reported, Morgan Stanley analyst Simon Flannery downgraded Verizon to Equal Weight from Overweight, as he contends that the stock's 11% year-to-date advance prices in the company's good news, including its $4B free cash flow improvement this year. While Verizon has actively marketed itself as the first carrier to 5G, this may spur higher spending than currently estimated by consensus, said Flannery. He believes carriers could spend up to $40B on wireless spectrum over the next three years, with Verizon alone spending up to $18B, the analyst added. Additionally, he sees risk of an increased competitive environment. Flannery maintains a $58 price target on Verizon shares.

Ribbon Communications (RRBN) announced plans for a major network modernization program with Verizon (VZ) to retire legacy TDM switching platforms and replace their function with modern cloud-based technologies. Verizon is leveraging Ribbon's portfolio of Voice Products including the vC20 Call Controller, G5 Line Access Gateway, G6 Universal Media Gateway, virtual and Cloud-native Session Border Controllers, and other products which allows for the consolidation and replacement of equipment with energy efficient, software-centric platforms while maintaining full feature functionality.

Wells Fargo lowered the firm's price target on Verizon to $40 from $44 and keeps an Equal Weight rating on the shares. The firm sees encouraging signs in Q1 - improvement in sub trends and limited churn from price-ups - offset by some softness in the business segment and prepaid. Wells would get more constructive when there's visibility on a sustainable improvement in sub trends.