Telephone and Data Systems vs Verizon
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The short version
- Verizon is the larger business, with $138.2B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $1.2B for Telephone and Data Systems, about 113 times as much.
- Verizon grew revenue faster (2.5%, against −5.3%).
- Verizon kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (21.2% operating margin, against −7.9%).
- Telephone and Data Systems turned more of its sales into free cash flow (16.2% FCF margin, against 14.6%).
- Verizon earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (9.4%, against −1.5%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Telephone and Data Systems’s earnings: a P/E of 11.7x against 11.6x for Verizon.
| Latest fiscal year | TDS · FY25 | VZ · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $4.1B | $186.3B |
| Revenue | $1.2B | $138.2B |
| Free cash flow | $199M | $20.1B |
| Net income | −$6.2M | $17.2B |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | −5.3% | 2.5% |
| 5-year growth | −25.1% | 1.5% |
| Share count change | 4.3% | 0.2% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | — | — |
| Operating margin | −7.9% | 21.2% |
| Net margin | −0.5% | 12.4% |
| FCF margin | 16.2% | 14.6% |
| Return on capital | −1.5% | 9.4% |
| Return on equity | −0.1% | 16.7% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | $62.6M | $139.1B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.3x | 2.9x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $196M | $11.5B |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 11.7x | 11.6x |
| Piotroski F-score | 5 | 5 |
FY16
TDS $5.2B
VZ $126.0B
FY17
TDS $5.0B
VZ $126.0B
FY18
TDS $5.1B
VZ $130.9B
FY19
TDS $5.2B
VZ $131.9B
FY20
TDS $5.2B
VZ $128.3B
FY21
TDS $5.3B
VZ $133.6B
FY22
TDS $5.4B
VZ $136.8B
FY23
TDS $1.4B
VZ $134.0B
FY24
TDS $1.3B
VZ $134.8B
FY25
TDS $1.2B
VZ $138.2B
TDS
VZ
FY16
TDS 2.1%
VZ 23.2%
FY17
TDS −2.1%
VZ 21.8%
FY18
TDS 4.0%
VZ 17.0%
FY19
TDS 3.5%
VZ 23.0%
FY20
TDS 5.0%
VZ 22.5%
FY21
TDS 4.9%
VZ 24.3%
FY22
TDS 2.3%
VZ 22.3%
FY23
TDS −50.4%
VZ 17.1%
FY24
TDS −14.8%
VZ 21.3%
FY25
TDS −7.9%
VZ 21.2%
TDS
VZ
FY16
TDS $146M
VZ $4.6B
FY17
TDS $91.0M
VZ $7.1B
FY18
TDS $241M
VZ $17.7B
FY19
TDS $59.0M
VZ $17.8B
FY20
TDS $194M
VZ $23.6B
FY21
TDS −$28.0M
VZ $19.3B
FY22
TDS −$6.0M
VZ $14.1B
FY23
TDS $498M
VZ $18.7B
FY24
TDS $780M
VZ $19.8B
FY25
TDS $199M
VZ $20.1B
TDS
VZ
FY16
TDS 1.0%
VZ 15.1%
FY17
TDS −1.3%
VZ 19.0%
FY18
TDS 2.4%
VZ 11.2%
FY19
TDS 1.8%
VZ 15.7%
FY20
TDS 3.3%
VZ 12.7%
FY21
TDS 2.6%
VZ 12.3%
FY22
TDS 0.7%
VZ 9.9%
FY23
TDS −5.4%
VZ 6.8%
FY24
TDS −1.7%
VZ 9.3%
FY25
TDS −1.5%
VZ 9.4%
TDS
VZ
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.