Evercore ISI upgrades Verizon, names top pick in wireless

Evercore ISI upgraded Verizon (VZ) to Outperform from In Line with a price target of $48, up from $44. Despite outperforming the broader market this year, Verizon shares continue to lag against peers AT&T (T) and T-Mobile (TMUS) on top of multiple years of relative underperformance, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Evercore believes Verizon has executed well towards improvements on postpaid subscriber trends at Consumer, showcased continued momentum across Business wireless customers, and is consistently hitting its broadband subscriber targets. It believes the stock is getting enough credit for the resiliency of the company’s wireless service revenue growth outlook, fiber efforts, and the upside from the pending Frontier acquisition. Verizon’s is now Evercore’s top pick across wireless and is its top value idea.