How Much Money You'd Have Now If You Invested $1,000 In Verizon In The '90s

Verizon Communications Inc. is one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world, generating $134 billion in revenue in 2023. Of that, $16.6 billion is net cash in hand, with a 2.7% increase in wireless service, 389,000 new broadband connections, and 239,000 new retail phone additions. As of press time today, Verizon trades at $39.06 per share, with Bank of America predicting a price growth of $41 to $45, Raymond James estimating $44 to $48, and Tigress Financial projecting a rising share price of $52 to $55. While the jury may be out on who offers the cheaper service, AT&T or Verizon, Verizon's myPlan deals offer some genius ways to save money on your phone bill, which only helps to raise the company's profile.

Verizon Communications used to be Bell Atlantic Corporation, only going under the name we know it as today after a merger with the GTE Corporation on June 30, 2000. Up until that point, Bell Atlantic was a holding company for a number of other telecommunication companies in the U.S. with the stock ticker BATR. After the merger and name change however, the company ticker became VCTR. The company has grown in size and share price since then, with significant acquisitions and changes along the way. If you had the foresight to invest $1,000 in the 90s, here's what it would be worth today.

In 1974, the U.S. Justice Department brought a lawsuit against the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), believing the company had formed a monopoly in the U.S. After a protracted 8-year legal battle, AT&T eventually acquiesced in 1982, breaking up the company over the next two years into several smaller regional companies. By 1984, AT&T had been reduced to Bell Labs, Western Electric, and long-distance service. Verizon's first iteration as the Bell Atlantic Corporation sprung from this break-up, and by the time U.S. Congress passed the Telecommunications Act on January 3, 1996 — the act made it easier for private companies to enter the telecommunications market — Bell Atlantic Corp. was trading at $110 per share.

In 1998, the merger of Bell Atlantic Corporation and GTE led to the formation of Verizon Communications, a company with a combined $53 billion in revenue with a $125 billion valuation. Today, largest telecommunications company in the U.S., the company has a market capitalization of just over $163 billion with Zacks analysts estimating $35.4 billion in fourth quarter revenue alone. Although the company, according to Investors Business Daily, is spending $20 billion to acquire Frontier Communications, it's also a bearish stock at the moment. Even though Verizon pays investors dividends, one way of making passive income that is better than real estate, it hasn't done particularly well as a stock over the years.

Since even before Verizon's inception — when it was still the Bell Atlantic Corp. — there have been a number of stock spits and acquisitions which have had an effect on the company's share price. Between 1986 and 2010 alone, there were half a dozen stock splits, so although the stock has a share price of around $39 today — far and away from the triple-digit prices of its early 90s heyday — you would think it might be far more valuable if you had been holding onto the stock that long. Warren Buffett once famously said, "Someone's sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago," which any holder of early 90s Verizon stock would be surprised is a money tip you should steal from Warren Buffett since that doesn't necessarily hold true for Verizon Communications.

The company has struggled with getting a return on investments put into the company, receiving a measly $1.07 for each dollar invested. They've also spent billions of dollars on acquisitions, increasing the company's debt load while losing money on assets acquired and sold, including AOL and Yahoo in 2021. So even though the company has 1000% more revenue, it's only grown earnings per share by 280%. This leads many analysts to conclude that Verizon has pretty much reached its zenith in terms of earnings per share. So what's your $1,000 investment worth in 2025? Currently, about $1,780, a return far lower than the S&P 500.