Charter Communications Inc - Class A

Charter Communications delivered a disappointing third quarter, missing on both the top and bottom lines as competitive broadband pressures and declining legacy services weighed on results. Diluted EPS came in at $8.34, falling 10.27% short of the $9.29 consensus estimate, while revenue slipped 0.9% year-over-year to $13.67 billion, narrowly missing the $13.75 billion Wall Street expected. The primary culprits were a 9.3% drop in video revenue and a 21.3% collapse in advertising sales tied to lower political spending, pressures that more than offset a 19.2% surge in mobile service revenue to $954 million and 3.8% residential connectivity growth. Adjusted EBITDA declined 1.5% to $5.56 billion, with margins compressing modestly to 40.7%, while the company also absorbed higher costs tied to its pending Cox Communications acquisition. Questions are mounting about whether aggressive share repurchases, including $2.20 billion spent during the quarter, can compensate for persistent broadband subscriber losses that totaled 109,000 in the period. Charter maintained its full-year capital expenditure guidance of approximately $11.50 billion, with network evolution to deliver symmetrical multi-gigabit speeds targeted for completion by 2027.