Verizon: The Risk Is to the Upside There is potential to turn VZ from a stable telecom into a 'growthy' type name. Mar 01, 2021 | 11:00 AM EST The name is now one of my oldest holdings. I have been continuously long Verizon (VZ) without being flat the name at any point in over two years. Last week I shaved a few underperformers in order to feed some growth names that were on sale at greatly discounted prices. It was last Thursday, I remember teeing up Verizon for a sale. My equity stake in Verizon has only returned an unrealized 7% over these past two years...certainly qualifying the name as an underperformer. I paused. Then I moved on. Not only did I not sell my shares in Verizon, I did not sell any of them. I still believed. Why? Why did I still believe that Verizon could eventually come through for me?