New York City-based Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) provides communications, information, and entertainment products and services to consumers, businesses, and governmental agencies. Its segments include Verizon Consumer Group and Verizon Business Group. In comparison, Armonk, N.Y.-based International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) is a technology company that operates in the cloud and cognitive software; global business services; systems; and global financing segments. It also designs advanced semiconductors in partnership with IBM research.
Since the beginning of the year, the benchmark stock market indexes have been correcting, driven by surging market volatility due to U.S.-Russia tensions over Ukraine, multiple interest rate hikes planned by the Fed, and multi-decade high inflation. Dividend-yielding stocks are often considered an efficient way to side-step market volatility because they offer regular income in the form of dividends in addition to capital appreciation.
