These telecom giants that haven’t done too much in recent years just made Josh Brown’s list
(This is The Best Stocks in the Market , brought to you by Josh Brown and Sean Russo of Ritholtz Wealth Management.) Josh — People are worried about the economy right now. The combination of weak hiring, high gas prices and a raft of large corporate layoff announcements has led to investors taking a second look at some defensive stocks that haven’t done much in recent years (decades). Two stocks that fit the bill are AT & T (T) and Verizon (VZ) . Over the last 10 years, they’ve trailed the market as investors prized asset-light companies with big profit margins and even bigger growth. T has annualized at just under 6% per year, while VZ has done just under 5%. That’s basically bond-like performance, as these companies spent the last few years unwinding some of the worst media deals in history. AT & T spent $85 billion to buy Time Warner, ultimately puking it up (along with $45 billion in debt) into a spin-off merger with Discovery Media (you know what happened next – Larry Ellison’s son and Netflix just had a knife fight over it this winter). Not to be outdone, the brain trust at Verizon inexplicably decided to spend a combined $10 billion to acquire AOL (literally, America Online) and Yahoo, both of which it disgorged shortly afterward. Wall Street analysts began referring to AT & T and Verizon as “Dumb and Dumber” and shareholders had to watch as years of cashflow were washed down the drain from ill-fated M & A. But that was then and this is now. AT & T is now doubling down on what it does best, communications and fiber optics for voice, wireless and data. It’s in a great position for the Age of AI. Verizon just posted a blow-out subscriber number the last time it reported earnings . The effects of its costly price war with T-Mobile seem to be ebbing. And, in the end, when investors are looking for companies with defensive characteristics, they usually come back to the mobile phone business. In the modern economy, a stressed consumer would probably give up their car or go delinquent on a credit card payment before they’d turn off their phone. I think there’s a combination of factors at play here and these stocks have remained strong all year so far. Sean’s going to tell you the story. But first! The Best Stocks in the Market metadata… Sector leaderboard As of Mar. 30 , there are 170 names on The Best Stocks in the Market list. Top sector ranking: Top industries: Top 5 best stocks by relative strength: Sector spotlight: Telecom giants Verizon Communications, Inc. (VZ): Sean — Verizon saw a massive gap higher following their year end 2025 report. Under the new CEO Dan Schulman, VZ posted its best phone net-add quarter in five years — 551,000 consumer adds and 616K total in Q4 alone. Full-year operating revenue reached $138.2B (up 2.5%), and adjusted EBITDA hit $50 billion for the year. VZ also closed an acquisition in Q1, expanding its fiber access to over 30 million homes and businesses and bringing its total fixed wireless access and fiber broadband connections to over 16.3 million. Free cash flow is inflecting higher for VZ. FCF troughed at $14.1 billion in FY2022. The company is now guiding to $21.5 billion or more in 2026, which would be the highest FCF since 2020, and management says the growth rate of 7%+ eclipses its 5-year average FCF growth rate of roughly -1% annually. Crucially for us, VZ is shifting towards being more shareholder friendly. The board authorized up to $25B in share repurchases over three years, and the annual dividend was raised for the 20th consecutive year, now at a compelling 5.62% yield, which is the 18th highest within the S & P 500. Josh — Did you miss this pop? Don’t feel bad, so did everyone. This was one of the best post-earnings reactions I have ever seen in this name, and I’ve been doing this since it was called Bell Atlantic, don’t play with me. This is a textbook post-earnings reset. Verizon exploded higher through the 200-day around $43 and never looked back, and now it’s digesting that move in a tight range just above $50. That’s exactly what you want to see after a vertical advance — no round-trip, no urgency to sell, just sideways consolidation while the moving averages catch up. The 50-day is rising fast and sitting around $47, starting to close the gap beneath price. If this base resolves higher, you’re looking at a continuation move into the low-$50s and potentially beyond, since there’s very little overhead supply left from the prior year. For traders, the risk is clean against that rising 50-day near $47 — lose that, and the character changes. For investors, the 200-day at $43 is the line that defines whether this is still a trend repair or something else. RSI around the mid-50s tells you momentum has cooled off from overbought without breaking down, which supports the idea that this is digestion, not distribution. We like digestion. AT & T, Inc. (T) Sean — AT & T saw a big jump higher post earnings too, and like VZ, momentum has carried this name higher. Free cash flow of $16.6B was reported for the year, with guidance for $18B+ in 2026, which put dividend sustainability concerns to rest, as T currently pays a nice 3.85% yield. Surprisingly, the old telecom company is starting to see some growth too. There were 1.5 million net phone adds and 1 million fiber net adds for the year which pushed total fiber subscribers to 10.4 million, and the company’s convergence rate (customers utilizing both wireless and fiber) — climbed 200 basis points to 42%, a metric that tends to correlate with lower churn and higher lifetime value, all good things for free cash flow in the future. AT & T returned over $12 billion to shareholders in 2025 through dividends and buybacks, a 50%+ jump from 2024, and guided for double-digit adjusted EPS CAGR through 2028. Josh — Golden cross last week. Short-term momentum is outpacing the longer-term trend, buyers are getting more aggressive. This is exactly what you want to see if you’ve been patient with this name. The stock spent most of the back half of last year in a downtrend, making lower highs and undercutting its 200-day. That changed in January. Since then, AT & T has reclaimed both the 50-day and 200-day and is now building a base just under $30. The recent action is tight, with higher lows forming into resistance, which puts pressure on that $29–30 zone. A clean breakout above $30 opens the door to a move back toward the low-$30s, which is the next logical supply area from early 2024. For traders, the level that matters is the rising 50-day, currently around $27. A loss of that would break the short-term uptrend and likely send it back toward the 200-day near $26.50. For investors, the line in the sand is that 200-day. As long as the stock is above it and the slope is turning higher, the trend is improving and you can stay with it. The setup here is straightforward: the stock is coiled just below resistance with momentum in the 60s on RSI, so you’re looking for resolution higher, not failure back into the prior range. DISCLOSURES: (None) All opinions expressed by the CNBC Pro contributors are solely their opinions and do not reflect the opinions of CNBC, or its parent company or affiliates, and may have been previously disseminated by them on television, radio, internet or another medium. THIS CONTENT IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE FINANCIAL, INVESTMENT, TAX OR LEGAL ADVICE OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY ANY SECURITY OR OTHER FINANCIAL ASSET. 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