Morgan Stanley analyst Simon Flannery said "perhaps the biggest takeaway" from Verizon's investor day event on Thursday was the company's "strong defense" of the ability to handle network traffic growth now and in the future. While demonstrating a steady ramp in capacity that is keeping well ahead of demand, the company also made it clear that C-Band spectrum was an attractive option for them, Flannery noted. Nationwide 5G is coming at some point this year and 5G Home broadband is set to scale exiting 2020, said the analyst, citing the company. Verizon also "made very clear" that the auction of C-Band spectrum in December would take precedence and buybacks will not come before that process was over, said Flannery, who has an Equal Weight rating and $61 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.

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Total wireless service revenue of $19.5 billion, a 3.3 percent increase year over year. Retail postpaid phone net losses of 68,000, and retail postpaid net additions of 253,000. Retail postpaid phone churn of 0.89 percent, and retail postpaid churn of 1.15 percent.

Total wireless service revenue growth of 2.0 percent to 3.5 percent. Adjusted EBITDA growth of 1.0 percent to 3.0 percent. Capital expenditures between $17.0 billion and $17.5 billion. Adjusted effective income tax rate1 in the range of 22.5 percent to 24.0 percent.

Reports Q1 revenue $33B, consensus $33.24B.