Verizon’s Money Melting Pot 🤑

Verizon (VZ) is the sort of telecom giant who wears a pinstripe suit made of signal bars and carries a golden piggy bank labeled “Dividends.” For a decade, it’s been the generous uncle of Wall Street, handing out 6% annual treats to shareholders while its stock performed the financial equivalent of a somersault into a puddle.

Imagine, if you dare, plunking down $10,000 on this “blue chip” back when smartphones still felt like magic. Let’s tiptoe through the numbers…

The Curious Case of the Shrinking Sack

Verizon’s stock price has pirouetted like a confused ballerina over ten years. Today, shares sit 5% below their 2014 grandeur – a $10,000 investment would melt into a measly $9,535. It’s as if the money grew legs and waddled away like a penguin in a hurry.

But ah! The Dividend Dynamo keeps clinking. Eighteen straight years of raises – an unbroken chain of jingle-jangle joy. Reinvest those coins, and your $10k swells to $16,030. A 60% total return! Until you realize the S&P 500 turned $10k into $38,800 – a feast of gains Verizon could only dream of while nibbling stale growth crumbs.

Here lies the tragedy: Verizon’s growth rate snores at low-single-digit speeds, slower than a sloth on a Sunday. Its grand AOL and Yahoo! media adventures? Costly candyfloss castles that crumbled into a $5 billion fire sale – a circus trick where the ringmaster lost his stripes.

Now the jolly giant gnaws on 5G bones and fiber-optic spaghetti, hoping these magic beans sprout skyscrapers. But unless its growth rate morphs from tortoise to cheetah, shareholders might keep playing the role of the goose that lays silver eggs – never quite golden enough.

Still, for dividend devotees, Verizon remains a cunning trick: a steady sugarplum of income in a world where most candies sour. Just don’t expect the wrapper to glitter like gold. 🤑

2025-09-01 16:10

The Curious Case of the Shrinking Sack

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