Verizon heads into its July 24 Q2 print with options traders turning notably more bullish — a divergence from the cautious analyst tone that defined last week's preview.
The shift in options positioning is the standout change since the last article. The put/call ratio has dropped to 0.80, more than two standard deviations below its 20-day average of 0.86. That is the most call-heavy reading in the past year, running well below the 52-week floor of 0.43 in relative terms. The move suggests investors are reaching for upside exposure rather than downside protection into the print — a meaningful reversal from the more defensive posture typical of this name. The stock recovered 1.9% on the week to close at $43.50, clawing back some of its 4% monthly decline, and the options market appears to be pricing in a continuation of that rebound.
The analyst picture remains cautious, but has been covered in recent articles. The key update: RBC Capital trimmed its target to $46 from $48 on Monday, the latest in a string of pre-earnings cuts. The consensus mean of $51.12 still implies roughly 17% upside from current levels — substantial for a large-cap telecom — but the direction of target revisions has been consistently downward. Bulls hold that the Frontier acquisition positions Verizon as a long-term broadband winner, and the dividend score ranks in the 89th percentile, anchoring the income thesis. Bears counter that postpaid phone net additions remain under pressure, competitive pricing is squeezing margins, and valuation has not cheapened enough to absorb a miss: the P/E has compressed from roughly 12.2x to 8.6x over the year, but that reflects earnings growth rather than multiple expansion from the stock falling.
Short sellers have not added to the pressure. Short interest has fallen roughly 9% over the past month to 2% of the free float — a low and declining reading. Borrow availability is exceptionally loose at over 4,300%, with cost to borrow at just 0.35%. There is no squeeze dynamic at play and no meaningful conviction from bears in the lending market. The ORTEX short score of 33 corroborates this: short-side pressure on Verizon is well below the midpoint on a cross-sectional basis.
The July 24 print will therefore test whether the uptick in call buying ahead of the event reflects genuine conviction on subscriber trends and Frontier integration progress — or simply positioning ahead of a result that recent earnings history suggests tends to be mildly positive: the last two prints each produced a 1-2% one-day gain.
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