diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 275140f89..f4ee8761a 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -16,6 +16,10 @@ GNU coreutils NEWS                                    -*- outline -*-
   the \u0085 (next line) character as a separator on non-GLIBC platforms.
   [bug introduced in coreutils-9.11]
 
+  'chown -v' and 'chgrp -v' no longer emit uninitialized user and group IDs when
+  operating on dangling symbolic links.
+  [bug introduced in coreutils-5.3.0]
+
   'date -u MMDDhhmm' no longer uses the local time zone's UTC offset when
   setting the date and time.
   [bug introduced in coreutils-9.11]
diff --git a/src/chown-core.c b/src/chown-core.c
index 21f1e3d97..4698e27eb 100644
--- a/src/chown-core.c
+++ b/src/chown-core.c
@@ -384,7 +384,9 @@ change_file_owner (FTS *fts, FTSENT *ent,
          stat it to get info on the referent.  */
       if (chopt->affect_symlink_referent && S_ISLNK (file_stats->st_mode))
         {
-          if (fstatat (fts->fts_cwd_fd, file, &stat_buf, 0) != 0)
+          if (0 <= fstatat (fts->fts_cwd_fd, file, &stat_buf, 0))
+            file_stats = &stat_buf;
+          else
             {
               if (ignore_missing
                   && ignorable_traversal_errno (errno))
@@ -393,9 +395,8 @@ change_file_owner (FTS *fts, FTSENT *ent,
                 error (0, errno, _("cannot dereference %s"),
                        quoteaf (file_full_name));
               ok = false;
+              file_stats = NULL;
             }
-
-          file_stats = &stat_buf;
         }
 
       do_chown = (ok
diff --git a/tests/chgrp/verbose-dangling-symlink.sh b/tests/chgrp/verbose-dangling-symlink.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..edf8c8c35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/chgrp/verbose-dangling-symlink.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Test that 'chgrp --verbose' works properly on dangling symbolic links.
+
+# Copyright (C) 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+. "${srcdir=.}/tests/init.sh"; path_prepend_ ./src
+print_ver_ chgrp
+getlimits_
+
+ln -s missing dangling-slink || framework_failure_
+
+set _ $(ls -ld dangling-slink); shift; group="$4"
+
+# From coreutils-5.3.0 to coreutils-9.12, this would use an
+# uninitialized struct stat.  Commonly, this would lead to the
+# following message:
+#
+#   failed to change group of 'dangling-slink' from root to collin
+#
+# Or, a random integer is being printed if the st_gid member was not
+# initialized to zero by the compiler.
+
+echo "chgrp: cannot dereference 'dangling-slink': $ENOENT" >exp-err \
+  || framework_failure_
+echo "failed to change group of 'dangling-slink' to $group" >exp-out \
+  || framework_failure_
+returns_ 1 chgrp -v "$group" dangling-slink >out 2>err || fail=1
+compare exp-out out || fail=1
+compare exp-err err || fail=1
+
+Exit $fail
diff --git a/tests/chown/verbose-dangling-symlink.sh b/tests/chown/verbose-dangling-symlink.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..e64370789
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/chown/verbose-dangling-symlink.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Test that 'chown --verbose' works properly on dangling symbolic links.
+
+# Copyright (C) 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program.  If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+. "${srcdir=.}/tests/init.sh"; path_prepend_ ./src
+print_ver_ chown
+getlimits_
+
+ln -s missing dangling-slink || framework_failure_
+
+set _ $(ls -ld dangling-slink); shift; user="$3"; group="$4"
+
+# From coreutils-5.3.0 to coreutils-9.12, this would use an
+# uninitialized struct stat.  Commonly, this would lead to the
+# following message:
+#
+#   failed to change ownership of 'dangling-slink' \
+#     from root:root to collin:collin
+#
+# Or, random integers if the st_gid and st_uid members were not
+# initialized to zero by the compiler.
+
+echo "chown: cannot dereference 'dangling-slink': $ENOENT" >exp-err \
+  || framework_failure_
+echo "failed to change ownership of 'dangling-slink' to $user:$group" \
+  >exp-out || framework_failure_
+returns_ 1 chown -v "$user":"$group" dangling-slink >out 2>err || fail=1
+compare exp-out out || fail=1
+compare exp-err err || fail=1
+
+Exit $fail
diff --git a/tests/local.mk b/tests/local.mk
index a46273832..8e80c28b6 100644
--- a/tests/local.mk
+++ b/tests/local.mk
@@ -211,6 +211,7 @@ all_tests =					\
   tests/tail/quote-headers.sh			\
   tests/chmod/no-x.sh				\
   tests/chgrp/basic.sh				\
+  tests/chgrp/verbose-dangling-symlink.sh	\
   tests/rm/dangling-symlink.sh			\
   tests/rm/dash-hint.sh				\
   tests/ls/ls-time.sh				\
@@ -575,6 +576,7 @@ all_tests =					\
   tests/chown/deref.sh				\
   tests/chown/preserve-root.sh			\
   tests/chown/separator.sh			\
+  tests/chown/verbose-dangling-symlink.sh	\
   tests/cp/abuse.sh				\
   tests/cp/acl.sh				\
   tests/cp/attr-existing.sh			\