Charter Communications (CHTR) - Company Research

Last Updated: 24 August 2026

Charter Communications is the second-largest cable operator in the United States, selling broadband, mobile, video and voice under the Spectrum brand over its own hybrid fibre-coaxial network. Four days before this report was written, on 20 August 2026, Charter closed two transformational transactions on the same day: the combination with Cox Communications and the merger with Liberty Broadband. The combined company serves roughly 37 million customers across 45 states and will change its parent-company name to Cox Communications within a year while continuing to trade services under the Spectrum brand. This report sets out what the company reported, what it is building, and what the raw numbers look like as at August 2026. It contains no analyst opinions, ratings or price targets.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Ticker / exchange	CHTR, Nasdaq Global Select Market
Headquarters	Stamford, Connecticut, United States, with a significant retained presence in Atlanta, Georgia following the Cox combination
Sector	Communication services — cable broadband, mobile, video and voice
CEO / Leadership	Christopher L. Winfrey, President and Chief Executive Officer. Alex Taylor, Chairman and Chief Executive of Cox Enterprises, became Chairman of the Board on 20 August 2026; Eric Zinterhofer, the previous non-executive Chairman, is now Lead Independent Director.
Employees	Approximately 91,900 as at 31 December 2025 per the fiscal 2025 Form 10-K, before the Cox workforce was added on 20 August 2026
Revenue (FY2025)	$54,774m; trailing twelve months to 30 June 2026 $54,396m
Net income (FY2025)	$4,987m attributable to Charter shareholders
GAAP diluted EPS (FY2025)	$36.21
Adjusted EBITDA (FY2025)	$22,708m as reported by the company
Share price	$150.17 (24 August 2026)
Market capitalisation	Approximately $20.2bn on Class A common stock alone; see Section 6 for the post-close fully diluted position
Shares outstanding	Approximately 119.3m Class A shares outstanding at 30 June 2026 (129.6m issued less 10.3m in treasury) plus one Class B share, before the 20 August 2026 closings
Dividend	None. Charter has never paid a common dividend; capital is returned through share, unit and note repurchases.
Network reach	Approximately 59.0 million estimated passings at 30 June 2026, rising to more than 70 million homes and businesses following the Cox combination

Charter's price action can be followed on the ChartsView Live Charts page, and the macro releases that drive the rate environment for a business this levered are listed on the Economic Calendar.

2. Bull and Bear Case

Bull Case

• Scale step-change at closing: the Cox combination completed on 20 August 2026 took the group to roughly 37 million customers across 45 states and more than 70 million homes and businesses passed, with the Spectrum brand and pricing rolling into former Cox markets from mid-September 2026.
• Mobile is compounding fast: Spectrum Mobile reached 12.5 million lines at 30 June 2026, up 406,000 in the quarter and 1.7 million or 15.5% year on year, and mobile service revenue rose to $1,095m in the second quarter from $921m a year earlier.
• Cash generation against a small equity base: trailing twelve-month operating cash flow to 30 June 2026 was $16,470m and free cash flow after capital expenditure was approximately $4,358m, against a Class A market capitalisation near $20.2bn.
• Buybacks shrink the share count materially: weighted average diluted shares fell from 193.0m in 2021 to 137.7m in 2025, which is why diluted EPS rose from $24.47 to $36.21 over a period when revenue grew only 6% in total.
• Investment cycle has a defined end date: management has said the network evolution to symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds completes in 2027, after which the elevated capital expenditure of recent years should step down.

Bear Case

• Broadband is shrinking, not growing: internet customers fell by 172,000 in the second quarter of 2026 to 29.4 million, a worse outcome than the 116,000 lost a year earlier, as fixed wireless access from the mobile carriers and fibre overbuilders take share.
• Revenue and EBITDA are both declining: second-quarter revenue fell 1.7% year on year to $13,526m and adjusted EBITDA fell 4.3% to $5,449m, so the earnings-per-share growth is being produced by the buyback rather than by the business.
• Very high leverage into a larger balance sheet: total principal debt was $93.8bn at 30 June 2026 against a modest equity market value, and the group has assumed approximately $12bn of Cox debt and finance leases on top.
• Dilution and a changed control structure: Charter issued the equivalent of just over 46 million shares in the Cox transaction, leaving Cox Enterprises with roughly 26% of the combined company on a fully diluted as-converted basis and the chairmanship.
• Video economics continue to deteriorate: video revenue fell 9.7% year on year in the second quarter, and $251m of programmer streaming-app costs were netted against video revenue in the quarter compared with $67m a year earlier.

3. Business Segments

Charter reports its operations as a single reportable segment. It does, however, disclose revenue by product line, and that disaggregation is the meaningful way to look at the business. Figures below are for the three months ended 30 June 2026 against total revenue of $13,526m.

Segment / product line	% of revenue	What it is
Internet (residential)	42.7% ($5,776m)	Residential broadband subscriptions, the profit engine of the business. Revenue fell from $5,969m a year earlier as the customer base contracted to 29.4 million.
Video (residential)	23.3% ($3,149m)	Residential pay television, 12.5 million customers. Reported revenue is depressed by $251m of streaming-app costs netted against it in the quarter.
Mobile service (residential)	8.1% ($1,095m)	Spectrum Mobile, an MVNO with 12.5 million lines. The only large line growing, up from $921m a year earlier.
Small business	8.2% ($1,104m)	Connectivity and voice sold to small and medium-sized businesses, broadly flat year on year at $1,096m in the prior period.
Other	6.6% ($894m)	Mobile device sales, processing fees, security and other ancillary revenue, up from $835m a year earlier.
Mid-market and large business	5.6% ($761m)	Enterprise connectivity, fibre and managed services, up from $740m a year earlier.
Advertising sales	3.1% ($416m)	Spot and advanced advertising sold across the footprint, up from $371m a year earlier.
Voice (residential)	2.4% ($331m)	Residential landline telephony, 5.7 million customers and in structural decline.

Grouped the way the company presents them, residential revenue was $10,351m or 76.5% of the total, commercial revenue was $1,865m or 13.8%, with advertising and other making up the balance.

4. Business Model and Moat

How it makes money. Charter sells recurring monthly subscriptions over a network it owns. Broadband is the anchor product and carries by far the highest incremental margin, because once a home is passed the cost of serving an additional subscriber is small. Video and voice are increasingly retention products rather than profit centres, and the strategy is explicitly to bundle streaming applications such as Disney+, HBO Max, Paramount+ and Peacock into video packages at no incremental customer charge, accepting lower reported video revenue in exchange for keeping the broadband relationship.

The mobile lever. Spectrum Mobile is a mobile virtual network operator riding a wholesale agreement with Verizon, but the economics improve as traffic moves off that wholesale network: the company has disclosed that roughly 88% of Spectrum Mobile data now offloads onto Charter's own Wi-Fi and CBRS spectrum. Mobile is sold at a discount to the national carriers and used to reduce broadband churn, supported by promotional constructs such as the savings guarantee launched in early 2026 for customers switching two or more lines.

Where the moat comes from, and where it is eroding. The durable advantage is the sunk cost of the last-mile plant: approximately 59.0 million estimated passings at 30 June 2026, rising past 70 million after the Cox combination, plus roughly 45 million Wi-Fi access points. Replicating that footprint would cost tens of billions and take a decade. The qualification is that the moat protects against duplication, not against substitution — fixed wireless access delivered over existing mobile spectrum and fibre overbuilds in dense markets both attack the broadband base without needing to match the coaxial footprint, which is precisely what the subscriber numbers now show.

Subsidised rural build. Charter continues to construct subsidised rural passings funded through federal and state programmes, activating 127,000 in the second quarter of 2026, and grew customer relationships within that rural footprint by 47,000 in the same period. This is the one part of the footprint where the passings count and the customer count are both still rising.

5. Financial Health

Figures below are taken from Charter's Form 10-K and Form 10-Q filings and quarterly earnings releases. Fiscal years end 31 December. Charter does not report an adjusted earnings per share measure, so the GAAP figure is repeated in that column.

Fiscal Year	Revenue ($m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2021	51,682	+7.5%	$24.47	$24.47†	Nil	$88,564m
FY2022	54,022	+4.5%	$30.74	$30.74†	Nil	$96,093m
FY2023	54,607	+1.1%	$29.99	$29.99†	Nil	$95,777m
FY2024	55,085	+0.9%	$34.97	$34.97†	Nil	$92,134m
FY2025	54,774	−0.6%	$36.21	$36.21†	Nil	$94,006m

† Charter does not publish an adjusted or non-GAAP earnings per share measure; its non-GAAP disclosure is adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. The GAAP diluted figure is therefore repeated. Long-term debt is the non-current balance at each fiscal year end per the balance sheet; the current portion was a further $750m at 31 December 2025. Charter has never declared a common dividend.

Quarter / Half	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
Q2 2026	$13,526m	$10.66†	$10.66
Q1 2026	$13,597m	$9.17†	$9.17
Q4 2025	$13,601m	$10.34†	$10.34
Q3 2025	$13,672m	$8.34†	$8.34
Q2 2025	$13,766m	$9.18†	$9.18
FY2025 total	$54,774m	$36.21†	$36.21

The shape of the five-year record is unusual. Revenue grew from $51,682m to $54,774m, a compound annual rate of about 1.5%, and fell outright in fiscal 2025. Diluted earnings per share nonetheless rose 48% over the same window, from $24.47 to $36.21, because weighted average diluted shares fell from 193.0m to 137.7m. On the cash flow statement, trailing twelve-month operating cash flow to 30 June 2026 was $16,470m and capital expenditure was $12,112m, giving approximately $4,358m of free cash flow. Depreciation, amortisation and accretion over the same twelve months was $8,762m and operating income was $12,663m. At 30 June 2026 non-current long-term debt stood at $92,960m with a further $999m current, against cash of $509m and shareholders' equity of $16,952m. In the second quarter alone the company repurchased 4.0m Class A shares for $838m and bought back $1.2bn of face-value notes for $1.0bn of cash.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, August 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

An important caveat applies to every equity-based ratio below. The Cox and Liberty Broadband transactions closed on 20 August 2026, four days before this report, and no post-close share count has yet been filed. The market capitalisation figure reflects Class A common stock only at the 30 June 2026 count. Charter issued the equivalent of just over 46 million shares to Cox Enterprises, largely as Charter Holdings partnership units and convertible preferred units rather than listed common stock, and retired a net 4.7 million shares through the Liberty Broadband exchange. On a fully diluted, as-converted and as-exchanged basis the equity value of the whole enterprise is therefore materially higher than the headline Class A figure, and the enterprise value below excludes both the Cox equity consideration and the approximately $12bn of Cox debt and finance leases now inside the group.

Metric	Value
Market cap	Approximately $20.2bn on Class A common stock (share price $150.17 on 24 August 2026 across approximately 119.3m Class A shares at 30 June 2026). See the caveat above regarding the post-close fully diluted position.
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	3.91x on trailing twelve-month GAAP diluted EPS of $38.43. Charter publishes no adjusted earnings per share measure, so there is no separate adjusted multiple to quote.
P/E (forward)	n/a — Charter does not issue earnings per share guidance; management's forward guidance is limited to capital expenditure, reaffirmed at approximately $11.4bn for 2026 on a standalone basis excluding Cox.
P/S (TTM)	0.37x (market cap approximately $20.2bn / trailing twelve-month revenue $54,396m)
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	5.3x (enterprise value approximately $113.7bn / EBITDA approximately $21,425m). EBITDA is trailing twelve-month operating income of $12,663m plus depreciation, amortisation and accretion of $8,762m taken from the cash flow statement. The company's own reported adjusted EBITDA for fiscal 2025 was $22,708m on a slightly different basis.
P/FCF	Approximately 4.6x (market cap approximately $20.2bn / free cash flow approximately $4,358m; free cash flow = trailing twelve-month operating cash flow $16,470m − capital expenditure $12,112m). The company's own free cash flow definition, which adjusts for accrued capital expenditure and other items, produced $5,004m for fiscal 2025.
Enterprise value	Approximately $113.7bn (market cap approximately $20.2bn + total debt approximately $93,959m, being $92,960m non-current plus $999m current at 30 June 2026, − cash of $509m). This is a pre-close figure and excludes the Cox equity consideration and assumed Cox debt.
Price/book	1.06x (book value approximately $142.12 per share)
52-week high	$285.82
52-week low	$111.55
Short interest (% of float)	Approximately 29% (approximately 22.46m shares short against a free float of approximately 76.8m Class A shares, settlement date 31 July 2026). This is an unusually large short base and reflects a float much smaller than the issued share count because of the partnership-unit structure.
Days to cover	7.18 days

7. What Are They Building

Network evolution to symmetrical multi-gigabit. Charter is upgrading its hybrid fibre-coaxial plant to deliver symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds across the entire footprint, using high-split and DOCSIS 4.0 technology. Symmetrical service has already launched in several markets and management has stated that the network evolution initiative completes in 2027. This is the central capital project and the reason capital expenditure ran at $11.7bn in fiscal 2025 against $7.6bn in fiscal 2021.

Cox integration. The Spectrum brand and pricing launch across all former Cox markets from mid-September 2026, roughly four weeks after closing. Full customer-service and workforce integration is targeted over an eighteen-month period. The parent-company name changes to Cox Communications within one year of the 20 August 2026 close, while consumer-facing services continue under the Spectrum brand. Cox internet customers were offered a free year of Spectrum Mobile from the closing date.

Mobile and in-home hardware. Spectrum Mobile continues to be the primary growth vector, at 12.5 million lines and adding roughly 400,000 per quarter. In February 2026 the company launched Invincible Wi-Fi, a Wi-Fi 7 gateway with integrated 5G failover and battery backup, positioning the in-home router as a converged product rather than a commodity.

Rural expansion. Subsidised rural construction continues at pace, with 127,000 rural passings activated in the second quarter of 2026 and rural customer relationships up 47,000 in the same quarter. This programme is funded through federal and state broadband subsidy awards and is the principal source of net new passings.

8. Competitive Position and Peers

Charter competes on three fronts at once: with the other large cable operator for scale economics, with the mobile carriers for both broadband via fixed wireless access and for mobile lines, and with fibre overbuilders in dense markets. Market capitalisations below were re-checked on 24 August 2026. Two names commonly listed as peers have changed: Frontier Communications was acquired by Verizon and delisted from Nasdaq in January 2026, and Altice USA changed its name to Optimum Communications and its ticker from ATUS to OPTU in November 2025.

Peer	Market cap (August 2026)	Key 2025 metric
T-Mobile US (TMUS)	Approximately $196.3bn	Trailing twelve-month revenue of approximately $92.2bn and trailing EBITDA of approximately $34.4bn; the largest single source of fixed wireless competition for Charter's broadband base.
Verizon Communications (VZ)	Approximately $205.5bn	Trailing twelve-month revenue of approximately $138.9bn; both Charter's MVNO wholesale host and, since completing the Frontier acquisition in January 2026, a fibre overbuilder reaching around 30 million homes and businesses.
Comcast (CMCSA)	Approximately $95.3bn	Trailing twelve-month revenue of approximately $124.9bn and trailing EBITDA of approximately $34.1bn; the direct cable comparator, larger and more diversified through content and theme parks.
Optimum Communications (OPTU, formerly Altice USA / ATUS)	Approximately $0.32bn	Trailing twelve-month revenue of approximately $8.4bn and trailing EBITDA of approximately $3.0bn; a distressed cable operator trading below $1 per share, illustrating how the market is pricing levered cable equity.
Cable One (CABO)	Approximately $0.13bn	Trailing twelve-month revenue of approximately $1.44bn and trailing EBITDA of approximately $0.69bn; a small rural cable operator whose equity has collapsed under the same combination of subscriber losses and leverage.

The comparison with Optimum and Cable One is the important one for context. Both are smaller, more levered cable operators whose equity has been almost entirely written down while their enterprise values remain substantial. That is the mechanism the market is applying to levered cable equity when broadband subscribers decline, and it explains why Charter's own equity has fallen far more than its revenue has.

9. Insider Activity

Christopher L. Winfrey is President and Chief Executive Officer. The notable Section 16 activity in 2026 was a cluster of open-market purchases by the chief executive and two directors in late April, days after the first-quarter results triggered a sharp fall in the share price from roughly $241.53 on 24 April 2026 to about $165.17 by 30 April 2026.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Christopher L. Winfrey (President and CEO)	28 Apr 2026	Open-market purchase	6,936 (3,468 direct and 3,468 indirect via spouse)	Weighted average approximately $172.23	Approximately $1.19m	Not disclosed as a Rule 10b5-1 plan
Wade Davis (Director)	28 Apr 2026	Open-market purchase	5,728	Approximately $173.72	Approximately $0.99m	Not disclosed as a Rule 10b5-1 plan
Balan Nair (Director)	28 Apr 2026	Open-market purchase	1,000	Approximately $175.46	Approximately $0.18m	Not disclosed as a Rule 10b5-1 plan

No open-market sales by Section 16 officers were identified during this review, and Rule 10b5-1 plan status could not be confirmed for the purchases above. Readers should verify current filings directly against SEC Form 4 records. Note separately that the board changed materially at the 20 August 2026 closing: Cox's Dallas Clement and Mark Greatrex joined a thirteen-member board, Liberty Broadband's designees Martin Patterson and J. David Wargo stepped down, and Advance/Newhouse retained its two seats.

10. Key Risks

• Structural broadband subscriber decline: the internet base fell 172,000 in the second quarter of 2026 and has now declined for multiple consecutive quarters. Because broadband carries the highest incremental margin in the business, subscriber losses feed straight through to adjusted EBITDA, which fell 4.3% year on year in the same quarter.
• Leverage: total principal debt stood at $93.8bn at 30 June 2026 with net leverage running above 4x adjusted EBITDA, and the group has assumed roughly $12bn of Cox debt and finance leases. Management has set a modified post-transaction target net leverage range of 3.50x to 3.75x adjusted EBITDA, which requires either EBITDA growth or debt reduction that the current trajectory does not yet supply.
• Integration execution: the Cox combination closed on 20 August 2026 and the company's own cautionary disclosure identifies integration failure, unrealised synergies, transaction costs, higher interest expense and dilution as principal risks. Rebranding all former Cox markets to Spectrum from mid-September 2026 is a large customer-facing change executed within weeks of closing.
• Competitive substitution from fixed wireless and fibre: T-Mobile and Verizon are adding broadband customers on existing mobile spectrum at low incremental cost, and Verizon's completed acquisition of Frontier extends fibre to roughly 30 million homes and businesses. Neither route requires duplicating Charter's coaxial plant.
• Video economics and programming costs: video revenue fell 9.7% year on year in the second quarter, with $251m of programmer streaming-app costs netted against video revenue compared with $67m a year earlier. The bundling strategy is deliberate but it compresses reported revenue and residential average revenue per user.
• Concentrated control and float dynamics: Cox Enterprises holds approximately 26% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis and the chairmanship, Advance/Newhouse retains partnership units and board seats, and the resulting Class A free float of roughly 76.8m shares carries a short interest near 29%, which makes the listed equity mechanically volatile.
• Capital intensity until 2027: capital expenditure has run between $11.1bn and $11.7bn for three consecutive years and is guided at roughly $11.4bn for 2026 on a standalone basis. Free cash flow does not materially improve until the network evolution completes.

11. Recent Developments

• 20 Aug 2026 — Cox and Liberty Broadband transactions both close. Cox Enterprises received approximately 33.6m Charter Holdings common units, $6bn of 6.875% convertible preferred Charter Holdings units convertible into 12.6m common units, and approximately $4bn in cash, taking it to roughly 26% of the combined company on a fully diluted as-converted basis. Liberty Broadband shareholders received 0.236 Charter shares for each Liberty share, retiring approximately 38.6m shares and issuing approximately 33.9m, a net reduction of about 4.7m shares. Alex Taylor became Chairman; the parent company will be renamed Cox Communications within a year while services remain under the Spectrum brand.
• 20 Aug 2026 — Combined footprint disclosed. The enlarged group serves approximately 37 million customers across 45 states, with services available to more than 70 million homes and businesses. Spectrum brand and pricing launch in former Cox markets from mid-September 2026.
• 24 Jul 2026 — Second-quarter results. Revenue of $13,526m, down 1.7% year on year; net income attributable to shareholders of $1,292m; diluted EPS of $10.66 against $9.18; adjusted EBITDA of $5,449m, down 4.3%; capital expenditure of $2,871m; free cash flow of $969m. Internet customers fell 172,000 to 29.4 million while mobile lines rose 406,000 to 12.5 million.
• 28 Apr 2026 — Chief executive and two directors buy stock. Christopher Winfrey purchased 6,936 shares at a weighted average of approximately $172.23, alongside purchases by directors Wade Davis and Balan Nair, following the post-results decline.
• 24 Apr 2026 — First-quarter results and a sharp share price fall. Revenue of $13,597m, down 1.0% year on year, and diluted EPS of $9.17. The shares fell from around $241.53 at the report to about $165.17 within a week on continued broadband losses.
• 30 Jan 2026 — Fourth-quarter and full-year 2025 results. Full-year revenue of $54,774m, down 0.6%; net income attributable to shareholders of $4,987m; adjusted EBITDA of $22,708m, up 0.6%; capital expenditure of $11,659m. During the year the company repurchased 17.1m shares and units for approximately $5.4bn.
• 20 Jan 2026 — Verizon completes the Frontier acquisition. Frontier Communications delisted from Nasdaq, with shareholders receiving $25.50 per share in cash, extending Verizon's fibre reach to roughly 30 million homes and businesses across 31 states and the District of Columbia.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• Expected Sep 2026 — Spectrum brand and pricing launch across all former Cox markets, scheduled for mid-September 2026, the first large customer-facing milestone of the integration.
• Expected Oct 2026 — Third-quarter 2026 results, expected at the end of October. This will be the first reporting period to include any part of the Cox business and the first opportunity to see a post-close share count and leverage position.
• Expected Feb 2027 — Fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results, together with the first full-year capital expenditure outlook for the combined group.
• Expected Aug 2027 — Deadline for the parent-company name change to Cox Communications, which management has said will take place within one year of the 20 August 2026 closing.
• Expected 2027 — Completion of the network evolution initiative to symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds across the footprint, the point at which management has indicated the elevated capital expenditure cycle ends.
• Expected 2028 — Conclusion of the eighteen-month Cox customer-service and workforce integration programme begun at the August 2026 closing.

No shareholder meeting or investor day date had been announced as at 24 August 2026. Charter's results releases are typically issued before the market opens on the reporting date.

Discussion of Charter and the wider cable and connectivity sector takes place on the ChartsView Forum.

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