There is good news today for some customers of communications stock Verizon (VZ). However, there is bad news for other customers. Some Verizon plans are getting changes, and while some of the changes will be welcome, some of the changes will be much less so. This combination of good and bad news left investors just a bit upbeat, as shares notched up fractionally in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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First, there is good news for two mobile plans, specifically, the Simple Mobile and Total Wireless plans. Anyone with a Simple Mobile plan will get an upgrade, reports note, as all five levels of the Simple Mobile plan are in line for such service. The upgrades all focus on internationally calling, and data use while traveling. For instance, the $25 Unlimited plan got an upgrade from three gigabytes of data to 15. The $30 Unlimited plan got its data bumped up from five gigabytes to 20, and the $40 Unlimited plan increased from 15 gigabytes to 30. The other two plans were unlimited to begin with, so they have only increased the number of countries which offer free calling.
Total Wireless customers, however, will get an upgrade, but only if they have one of the two highest levels of service. The 5G Unlimited plan and the Total Base 5G Unlimited plans will get their international calling ranges expanded significantly, with international calling to 180 countries and roaming coverage in 30. This should go a long way toward keeping those customers in the fold.
Not Everyone Will Be This Pleased, Of Course
But then, Verizon decided to make some changes that will likely be less well-received. The Unlimited and More Unlimited tablet plans are both out, and these will be replaced by three new plans. The Welcome plan looks a lot like the Unlimited plan, except where the Unlimited plan had five gigabytes of data, Welcome only has two.
More Unlimited seems to have been replaced with the Unlimited Plus plan, which offers unlimited data, as well as 100 gigabytes of “premium mobile hotspot” data. This is available at $25 a month, which suggests that Verizon is eager to push customers into this tier. But customers are less than sure, with one customer declaring on social media: “At this point, it’s deliberately hostile to their customers. It’s almost like they want to get users off to reduce congestion and drive us away.”
Is Verizon Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on VZ stock based on eight Buys and nine Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 9.48% rally in its share price over the past year, the average VZ price target of $48.75 per share implies 7.85https://www.tipranks.com/stocks/vz/forecast% upside potential.
