Charter Communications Inc CHTR

The analyst's take

Charter fell 5.9% on a day with no company-specific announcement we could find. Alphastreet reads it as a rotation out of telecom service providers, and peers CABO and VSNT also fell. The multiple is 9.0× EV to operating income, 19th cheapest of 30 and above the 8.6× median. Free cash flow yield is 24.2% and shareholder yield is 26.4%, but the five-year return on assets of 8.4% ranks 24th. The real risk is debt: net debt is $99.5B against an $18.0B market value.

What happened

Charter fell 5.9% with no company announcement found. Alphastreet says telecom providers were sold as a group; peers VSNT fell 3.0% and CABO 3.9%. Comcast also fell on competition worries.

What the numbers say

EV is $117.5B, mostly debt. Operating earnings yield is 11.1% versus a 5.0% ten-year Treasury. Illustrative: if operating income fell 20% at today's multiple, equity would be worth $-31.46 a share.

What to watch

Q3 results come November 6, 2026. Q2 Spectrum Internet customers fell 172,000, and TD Cowen flagged possible record cable losses. One headline says buybacks may give way to debt reduction.

Against the market, its industry and sector

CHTR as a percentile of all 3,190 investable US stocks, against the 9 in Wireless and Wireline Telecommunications Services and the 34 in the Telecommunications sector.

Percentiles of the number itself. For the Acquirer's Multiple and debt to equity, lower is better: the 5th percentile on the multiple is cheaper than 95% of investable US stocks. Green is the better end, red the worse. Orange dot: CHTR; bar: industry median; diamond: sector median. Data as of 2026-10-24.

CHTR is in Wireless and Wireline Telecommunications Services. Here is where the industry's median stock sits today against its own record since 1999.

The industry's median stock as a percentile of all investable US stocks on each number. For the Acquirer's Multiple and debt to equity, lower is better: the 10th percentile is cheaper than 90% of the market. For yields, returns and size, higher is bigger. Usual range covers the middle 80% of quarters since 1999; it's the shaded band in each chart. Each chart is zoomed to its own range (the numbers on the left): green shading marks the metric's better side and red its worse side, the dashed line is the 50th percentile, and the dot is today, coloured by where it sits.

Value-trap check

Grades may miss that $99.5B of net debt and shrinking broadband customers can erase equity quickly, even with strong free cash flow.

Price v Return

What the shares and assets earn, against the 10-year Treasury.

Definitions

Acquirer's Multiple®

Enterprise value ÷ operating income (trailing 12 months). What an acquirer would pay for the whole business against what it earns before interest and tax. Lower is cheaper.

Enterprise value

Market cap at today's price, plus debt, preferred stock and minority interests, less cash.

Operating income

Trailing 12 months, after depreciation and amortization.

Operating earnings yield

Operating income ÷ enterprise value: the Acquirer's Multiple turned upside down.

Free cash flow yield

Trailing 12-month free cash flow (cash from operations less capital spending) ÷ market cap.

Shareholder yield

Trailing 12-month dividends plus net buybacks (shares bought back less shares issued) ÷ market cap. Dividend yield and buyback yield are its two parts.

Return on assets

Trailing 12-month operating income ÷ total assets at the latest quarter.

Net debt : market cap

Debt less cash, as a share of market cap. Negative means net cash.

E(r)

Expected annual return if the Acquirer's Multiple doesn't change. It has three parts: return on assets (what the business earns on what it owns); incremental growth (return on assets × the reinvestment rate, where the reinvestment rate is five-year average capital spending ÷ five-year average total assets: what reinvested capital adds); and shareholder yield (what is paid out through dividends and buybacks). E(r) = return on assets × (1 + reinvestment rate) + shareholder yield.

10-year Treasury

The latest monthly 10-year US Treasury yield, the risk-free rate the yields are compared with.

Percentiles

Where the stock sits among investable US stocks (price above $3, market cap above $75M, average daily trading above $850,000, no ADRs or MLPs), updated each week. Each is the percentile of the number itself: for the Acquirer's Multiple (here EBIT ÷ enterprise value) and debt (total debt ÷ book equity), lower is better; for yields, five-year average return on assets and market cap, higher is bigger. Stocks outside the investable set, such as ADRs, are placed against it.

Industry and sector

FactSet RBICS industry. Industry and sector medians are the middle investable stock's percentile. Industry history is that median each quarter since 1999; the usual range is the middle 80% of quarters.

Turning points

Inflection points are the peaks and troughs where the stock's trend reversed by about 25% or more on weekly closes; each is compared over the move that followed. Divergences are stretches where the stock pulled away from its sector fund or the S&P 500 by about 20% or more. Each is set against its peers' median, its sector fund and the S&P 500 over the same window. Driver: Market if the market moved with it (same way, at least half as far) and so did its peers or sector; Sector if only its peers or sector did; Company otherwise.

Value-trap grades

Return on assets: Strong at 10% or more, Mixed at 5% or more. Net debt : market cap: Strong at 30% or less, Mixed at 100% or less. Free cash flow yield: Strong at 10% or more, Mixed at 5% or more. Shareholder yield: Strong at 8% or more, Mixed at 3% or more.