Why You Should Think About Charter Communications Differently Now? Trefis Team Fri, November 13, 2026 at 2:16 PM EST 3 min read CHTR +4.18% ^GSPC -0.60% CMCSA +1.37% T +0.02% VZ -0.47% Explore stocks on Coinbase Trading disclosure Trading disclosure The above button links to Coinbase. Yahoo Finance is not a broker-dealer or investment adviser and does not offer securities or cryptocurrencies for sale or facilitate trading. Coinbase pays us for certain activity generated through this link. Prices displayed are informational.
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Charter Communications (CHTR) stock trades at 0.28 times its sales, against 3.2 times for the S&P 500. On earnings, the gap is narrower: 11.2 times, against the index's 21.9. Charter also carries $110 billion of debt. Shareholders paying even that low price need to know what they are buying, and the company's priorities have changed. In its fiscal Q1 2025 call, management talked up Charter's mobile business. On its November 6, 2026 call, management still called Charter the fastest-growing mobile provider in its footprint. But it now puts internet growth ahead of mobile. So what does Charter's management emphasize now, and why does it matter to you?
Charter Now Puts Winning Internet Customers First
On the fiscal Q3 2026 call, management said its top priority is to return to growth in its core business by winning more internet customers. Mobile now plays a supporting part: executives described the mobile and video products as offerings that support internet customer growth.
That is a change from the fiscal Q1 2025 call, when management said Charter would continue to be the fastest-growing mobile provider in the US. During that presentation, management credited a strong contribution from mobile growth for lifting its EBITDA growth, a profit measure before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, to 4.8%. Mobile has not left the conversation. Legacy Charter, the business the company ran before its Cox deal closed on August 19, 2026, grew its mobile lines by nearly 15% over the last twelve months. Mobile's role has changed from the growth story to a product that helps sell internet.
How Big Is Internet Next To Mobile For Charter?
Internet is the far bigger business. It brought in $23.8 billion in fiscal 2025, accounting for 43.4% of Charter's revenue that year. Mobile service brought in $3.76 billion, or 6.9% of revenue.
While mobile is the faster grower, its expansion is slowing. Mobile service revenue grew 22.0% in fiscal 2025, down from 37.4% a year earlier. Internet revenue grew just 1.7% that year.
The internet business is also losing customers faster. Legacy Charter lost 156,000 internet customers in the third quarter of 2026, more than the 109,000 it lost a year earlier. Management has therefore turned its attention to the business with the largest share of revenue, which is also where customer losses have grown.
Is Charter's New Focus Good News For You?
For now, the shift looks more concerning than reassuring. Pointing the company at its largest business makes sense on size alone, but that business is where customers are leaving faster, and management said it was not satisfied with the third quarter's result in internet customers.
Management also gave no date for a turn. It said it is not providing any guidance or outlook for when Charter returns to growth, though it will give regular updates on its progress. Management did point to one early sign, and it is narrow: since the Spectrum Day launch on September 16, management said, Charter has cut the run rate of internet losses at Cox by half. That covers the former Cox business, not Legacy Charter.
The change in Legacy Charter's internet customer count is the number to watch when Charter next reports, expected in January 2027.
Does This Mean You Should Act On CHTR?
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