markets

Jon Keegan7/21/25

Verizon rises on strong Q2 earnings, boost to guidance

Verizon rose almost 4% in Monday morning trading on strong second-quarter earnings and improved guidance for the full year.

The company reported adjusted earnings per share of $1.22, beating analysts’ consensus of $1.19, according to Bloomberg, while total operating revenues of $34.5 billion were also well ahead of the expected $33.8 billion.

Wireless service revenue grew 2.2% to $20.9 billion, and the company booked more than 300,000 net additions across mobility and broadband.

Management cited “strong operational execution in the first half of 2025 coupled with favorable tax reform” as prompting an improvement to its guidance.

Verizon raised its full-year outlook for adjusted EPS growth to 1% to 3% (upping the floor from its previous outlook) and upped free cash flow guidance by $2 billion $20.5 billion.

Some highlights broken down by business units:

Broadband

- 293,000 broadband net additions.

- 5.1 million fixed wireless access subscribers.

- Fixed wireless access net additions of 278,000.

- Total broadband customers: 12.9 million, up 12.2% year on year.

Verizon Consumer

- Wireless service revenue up 2.3% year on year to $17.4 billion.

- 50,000 wireless retail core prepaid net additions.

- 51,000 wireless retail postpaid phone net losses.

Verizon Business

- 65,000 wireless retail postpaid net additions.

- Business wireless service revenue was $3.6 billion, up 1.6% year on year.

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Max Knoblauch3m

Carvana tumbles on report from short seller Gotham City Research

Used car retailer Carvana is down more than 12% on Wednesday, with shares on pace for their worst day since October.

A new report from short seller Gotham City Research, which had teased its publication in a post on X earlier in the day, appears to be dragging shares down. In the report, Gotham alleges Carvana’s 2023-24 earnings were overstated by more than $1 billion. (For perspective, Carvana’s earnings in those two years totaled just over $550 million.)

Gotham’s report also alleges that Carvana’s earnings are “far more dependent” on auto loan companies DriveTime and Bridgecrest than the market currently takes into account and that DriveTime’s subsidies fuel over 73% of Carvana’s earnings before interest and taxes. In its post teasing its findings, Gotham said Carvana would “age as one of the biggest Corporate Scandals of America over time.”

Per the report:

“We see problems with accounting, disclosure, and business practices that will lead to regulatory trouble. At best, we believe CVNA is far less profitable than believed, as a standalone business. At worst, CVNA is more like Tricolor, rather than Amazon. Either way, shares face massive downside risk to the share price.”

Carvana did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bottleneck

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Matt Phillips8m

markets

Matt Phillips4h

Corning reports better-than-expected Q4 results

Glassmaker Corning, which saw its shares explode higher Tuesday after announcing an up to $6 billion deal to supply fiber-optic equipment for Meta AI data centers in coming years, issued its Q4 numbers before the start of trading Wednesday.

The company reported:

Non-GAAP core earnings per share of $0.72 vs. consensus expectations of $0.71 from analysts, according to FactSet.
Core sales of $4.41 billion vs. a $4.36 billion consensus estimate from analysts.

The company expects Q1 2026 core sales of $4.2 billion to $4.3 billion, compared to a consensus estimate of $4.26 billion from Wall Street, with core EPS between $0.66 and $0.70, the midpoint of which is a penny higher than the Street’s estimate of $0.67.

Investors traded the stock, which rose 16% on Tuesday after the Meta news, down 3.4% before markets opened. Through the end of Tuesday’s session, shares had nearly doubled over the last six months.

markets

Matt Phillips4h

GE Vernova, cornerstone of AI energy trade, dips after Q4 profit trails estimates

GE Vernova, which makes turbines used in power plants and has been a cornerstone in the AI power trade, is falling after posting a mixed bag of Q4 results on Wednesday morning.

Adjusted EBITDA of $1.16 billion fell short of the $1.25 billion estimate from analysts polled by Bloomberg, dragged down by a loss in its wind business.
Total revenue came in at $10.96 billion vs. the $10.21 billion consensus expectation from analysts polled by FactSet.
GE Vernova gave full-year 2026 sales guidance of between $44 billion and $45 billion vs. a consensus estimate of $42.13 billion.
New orders came in at $22.2 billion vs. expectations for $18.28 billion.

GE Vernova is up some 400% over the last two years, but the majority of those gains were booked by August 2025. Since then, the shares have been largely range-bound, and are down a bit after this morning’s report.

markets

J. Edward Moreno5h

Starbucks jumps after same-store sales beat estimates in Q1

Starbucks rose as much as 9% in premarket trading and continued to soar when the market opened on Wednesday after it reported financial results that beat Wall Street estimates on same-store sales for its fiscal Q1, with management projecting better-than-expected results for that key metric for the full fiscal year.

For the last three months of 2025, Starbucks reported:

$9.9 billion in revenue, higher than the $9.6 billion analysts were penciling in.
Same-store sales growth of 4%, significantly higher than the 2.3% analysts polled by FactSet had estimated. This marks the second consecutive quarter where that key metric was positive.
Adjusted earnings per share of $0.56, less than the $0.59 the Street was expecting.

The sales beat is a sign that CEO Brian Niccol’s turnaround plan, which includes ideas like the “bearista cup” and extending seasonal drink periods, may be moving the needle. “It is clear from our top-line results that our ‘Back to Starbucks’ plan is working and our turnaround is taking hold,” Niccol told analysts Wednesday morning.

Starbucks’ China business saw comparable-store sales grow by 7% after years of stagnant sales. The company said in November that it would sell a 60% stake in its China sector to Boyu Capital. “China was a standout,” Niccol said.

The company also shared its first financial outlook since suspending its forecast in October 2024. For its fiscal year ending in September, Starbucks guided for same-store sales to rise by at least 3%, more than the 2.83% growth that Wall Street was projecting. Management also expects annual adjusted earnings per share in a range of $2.15 to $2.40, compared to the $2.35 analysts were estimating.

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