Shares of Verizon Communications Inc. VZ have been in focus following news of a merger between Dish Network DISH and EchoStar SATS.

Contrary to peers, Verizon should deliver an improvement in postpaid phone net additions, despite a decline in market share, according to KeyBanc Capital Markets.

The Verizon Communications Analyst: Brandon Nispel upgraded the rating for Verizon Communications from Sector Weight to Overweight, with a price target of $45.

The Verizon Communications Thesis: The company is likely to report year-on-year improvements in postpaid phone net adds in every quarter in 2024, versus declines for T-Mobile US Inc TMUS and AT&T Inc T, Nispel said in the upgrade note.

“We expect VZ’s Consumer Broadband business to achieve 1.16M net adds in ’23 and 1.03M in ’24, which compares to our expectations for T of -170K in ’23 and -96K in ’24,” the analyst wrote. “We expect VZ to outperform T given VZ’s growing FiOS (Fiber) and 5G Home (FWA) service, and relatively smaller amount of Non-Fiber (DSL and Other) customers,” he added.

“VZ EBITDA growth should go from 0% in ’23 to >2% in ’24, which would represent VZ’s second fastest adj. EBITDA growth rate since 2018,” Nispel further stated.

VZ Price Action: Shares of Verizon were up 1.08% to $39.30 at the time of publication Wednesday.