Charter Shares Fall 9% After Soft 3Q Broadband Gains, Higher CapEx

By Will Feuer

Shares of Charter Communications fell after the cable giant reported a deceleration in new broadband subscribers and said it will spend more on upgrading its network this year than planned.

The stock fell more than 9%, to $372.71, in afternoon trading. Shares are still up about 10% so far this year.

The company gained 63,000 business and residential internet subscribers in the quarter, down from 75,000 new subscribers in the same quarter a year ago and below Wall Street analysts' expectations.

"The broadband market has been temporarily stunted for growth, but we are growing in both our existing footprint as well as in the rural subsidized footprint," Chief Executive Chris Winfrey said.

Jonathan Chaplin, an analyst at NewStreet Research, said broadband penetration in new markets, where Charter is expanding to with the assistance of government-subsidized programs, was better than he expected. In core markets, though, growth appears to be pressured from competition with cell carriers, which have started selling wireless home internet service.

As for the video business, Charter lost 327,000 subscribers, an acceleration from a loss of 204,000 in the same quarter last year. Chief Financial Officer Jessica Fischer said the company's carriage dispute with Disney, during which Disney pulled its channels including ESPN from Charter's Spectrum service, drove about 100,000 subscribers to cut the cord.

Charter also said it plans to spend about $11.2 billion in capital expenditures this year, up from prior guidance for $10.5 billion to $10.8 billion. The increase was driven by higher spending on network upgrades and sending Xumo stream boxes to customers.

Write to Will Feuer at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 27, 2023 14:48 ET (18:48 GMT)

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