Charter Communications posted third-quarter results above Wall Street’s expectations, but its stock nevertheless lost ground in early trading.
The No. 2 U.S. cable operator and major internet provider reported income of $6.50 a share, well above analysts’ estimates and an improvement from $3.90 in the year-ago quarter. Revenue ticked up 9% to $13.15 billion.
Shares in Charter slid almost 3% to about $685, though initial trading volume was light. The stock has gained about 7% in 2021 to date.
Charter said it shed 133,000 residential video customers in the quarter, compared with an increase of 53,000 in the same quarter in 2020. The decline was sharper than the loss of 77,000 in the third quarter of 2019. As of September 30, Charter had 15.3 million residential video customers.
When internet, wireless and video are added together, though, Charter is continuing to gain ground, albeit gradually. The company added 243,000 residential internet customers in the third quarter, about half the number of new customers (494,000) who signed up during the Covid-hit third quarter of 2020.
Broadband and wireless are key business priorities for Charter and the company has bundled them together in a single offering. In reporting its quarterly results, Charter said the bundle has reached two million subscribers.
Charter CEO Tom Rutledge was asked during a conference call with analysts about rival Comcast’s recent expansion into smart-TV (the X-Class) and its ambition to be a streaming gateway.
“Charter is the biggest live-streaming app in the country,” Rutledge countered, noting that the company has more than 10 million customers who connect with Charter only via streaming. “We like the Comcast strategy, with regard to their putting their platform on televisions. We think there’s lots of opportunity for us to continue to change the video model and to take advantage of our relationship with customers and to make the video model more efficient for programmers and for operators and to bring value back to television.”