STAMFORD, Connecticut - Charter Communications , Inc. (NASDAQ:CHTR) reported its first quarter 2024 results today. The company posted an EPS of $7.55, which was $0.31 short of the consensus estimate of $7.86. Revenue for the quarter was reported at $13.7 billion, marginally below the expected $13.75 billion. The stock was down 2.7% in premarket trading.
Despite the miss, the company's first quarter revenue saw a modest increase of 0.2% year-over-year (YoY), driven by a significant rise in residential mobile service revenue, which surged by 37.8%, and a 1.9% growth in residential Internet revenue. However, Charter experienced a decrease in total residential and small and medium business (SMB) Internet customers by 72,000 during the quarter. In contrast, residential and SMB mobile lines saw an increase of 486,000, bringing the total to 8.3 million mobile lines.
President and CEO Chris Winfrey emphasized the company's competitive advantages and its position for sustainable growth, highlighting Charter's network evolution plans to offer symmetrical and multi-gigabit speeds across its footprint. Despite these positive notes, the stock experienced a 1.58% decline, indicating investor concern over the reported earnings and revenue shortfall.
Charter's net income attributable to shareholders totaled $1.1 billion, with adjusted EBITDA growing by 2.8% YoY to $5.5 billion. The company's capital expenditures reached $2.8 billion, reflecting ongoing investments in network evolution and expansion initiatives. Free cash flow, however, decreased to $358 million from $664 million in the prior year, primarily due to higher capital expenditures and a one-time settlement payment.
In terms of customer metrics, Charter saw a decrease in residential video customers by 392,000 and a decline in residential wireline voice customers by 274,000. The monthly residential revenue per customer slightly decreased by 0.1% compared to the previous year, affected by a lower mix of video customer relationships and a higher mix of lower-priced video packages.
The company's SMB customer relationships decreased by 3,000, while enterprise primary service units (PSUs) grew by 5,000. Charter continues its efforts to expand Internet access to unserved and underserved communities, with 73,000 subsidized rural passings activated in the first quarter.
Looking forward, Charter's guidance for full-year 2024 capital expenditures is estimated to be between $12.2 billion and $12.4 billion, including significant investments in line extensions and network evolution.
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