CHTR Q1 Earnings Miss, Stock Rise on Modest Y/Y Revenue Growth

Charter Communications CHTR has reported first-quarter 2025 earnings of $8.42 per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.29%. However, the reported figure increased 11.5% year over year.Revenues of $13.74 billion increased 0.4% year over year, driven by growth in residential mobile service, residential Internet and other revenue streams. This was partially offset by declines in residential video and advertising revenues. The top line beat the consensus mark by 0.41%.CHTR has shown a mixed earnings surprise, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate in one of the trailing four quarters while exceeding it in the other three, with an average surprise of 5.24%. (Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.)CHTR’s Segmental DetailsResidential revenues totaled $10.79 billion in the first quarter, which decreased 0.1% year over year.Charter Communications, Inc. Price, Consensus and EPS Surprise  Charter Communications, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Charter Communications, Inc. QuoteFirst-quarter 2025 monthly residential revenues per residential customer totaled $123.06 and increased 2.1% year over year.Internet revenues grew 1.8% year over year to $5.93 billion.Video revenues totaled $3.58 billion in the first quarter, decreasing 8.4% year over year. Voice revenues decreased 5% year over year to $356 million.First-quarter mobile service revenues totaled $914 million, up 33.5% year over year.Commercial revenues increased 1.4% year over year to $1.82 billion.Mid-market and large business revenues, excluding wholesale, increased 4.4% year over year, mostly reflecting PSU growth. First-quarter advertising sales were $340 million, which decreased 12.9% year over year, primarily driven by lower political revenues.Excluding political revenues in both periods, advertising sales revenues decreased 5.1% year over year due to a more challenging advertising market.Other revenues totaled $793 million in the first quarter, reflecting a rise of 13.4% from the first quarter of 2024, primarily driven by higher mobile device sales.CHTR’s Subscriber StatisticsFirst-quarter total residential and SMB Internet customers decreased 2% year over year to 31.369 million.First-quarter total Internet customers decreased by 60 thousand. As of March 31, 2025, Charter had 30.0 million total Internet customers.Total video customers decreased 181 thousand in the first quarter of 2025 compared with a decline of 405 thousand in the year-ago quarter. As of March 31, 2025, Charter had 12.71 million total video customers.In the first quarter of 2025, total wireline voice customers decreased 278 thousand compared with a decline of 279 thousand in the year-ago quarter. As of March 31, 2025, Charter had 6.6 million total wireline voice customers.Charter added 514 thousand total mobile lines compared with 486 thousand in the year-ago quarter. As of March 31, 2025, the company served 10.4 million mobile lines.Operating DetailsTotal operating costs and expenses decreased 2.6% year over year to $7.97 billion.First-quarter programming costs decreased 10.4% year over year due to fewer video customers, a higher mix of lower-cost packages within Charter’s video customer base and $47 million of costs, which accounting principles require to be allocated to programmer streaming applications and netted within video revenues.Other costs of revenues increased 8.7% year over year, driven by higher mobile device sales and mobile service direct costs.While field and technology operations decreased 0.7% year over year, customer operations decreased 4.5% year over year due to lower labor costs.Marketing and residential sales expenses increased 7.7% year over year, given Spectrum's continued focus on driving growth and the launch of its latest brand platform, Life Unlimited.Other expenses decreased 7.8% year over year.Adjusted EBITDA increased 4.8% year over year to $5.76 billion.Balance Sheet & Cash FlowAs of March 31, 2025, the total principal amount of debt was $93.6 billion, and Charter's credit facilities provided $6.4 billion of additional liquidity over its $796-million cash position.In the first quarter of 2025, net cash flows from operating activities totaled $4.2 billion. Capital expenditure totaled $2.4 billion in the first quarter of 2025, a decrease of $392 million from the year-ago quarter, driven by the timing of CPE, upgrade/rebuild and line extensions.The free cash flow in the first quarter of 2025 totaled $1.6 billion, reflecting an increase of $1.2 billion from the first quarter of 2024. The year-over-year increase in the free cash flow was primarily driven by higher net cash flows from operating activities and lower capital expenditure.In the reported quarter, Charter purchased 2.1 million shares of Charter Class A common stock and Charter Holdings common units for $751 million.Zacks Rank & Stocks to ConsiderCharter currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).Stride LRN, Roblox RBLX and Fox FOX are some better-ranked stocks that investors can consider in the Zacks Consumer Discretionary sector. LRN sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present, and RBLX and UTI carry a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.Stride is scheduled to report third-quarter fiscal 2025 results on April 29. Roblox is set to report first-quarter 2025 results on May 1, whereas Fox is scheduled to report third-quarter fiscal 2025 results on May 12.Only $1 to See All Zacks' Buys and SellsWe're not kidding.Several years ago, we shocked our members by offering them 30-day access to all our picks for the total sum of only $1. No obligation to spend another cent.Thousands have taken advantage of this opportunity. Thousands did not - they thought there must be a catch. Yes, we do have a reason. We want you to get acquainted with our portfolio services like Surprise Trader, Stocks Under $10, Technology Innovators,and more, that closed 256 positions with double- and triple-digit gains in 2024 alone.See Stocks Now >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Charter Communications, Inc. (CHTR): Free Stock Analysis Report Stride, Inc. (LRN): Free Stock Analysis Report Fox Corporation (FOX): Free Stock Analysis Report Roblox Corporation (RBLX): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks