Charter Communications (CHTR) Financials

Below is a concise, investor-focused summary of Charter Communications (NASDAQ: CHTR) using the company’s quarterly statements across the last four years. The points focus on trends in revenue, profitability, cash flow, and balance-sheet structure that retail investors may find informative when evaluating the stock's risk and growth outlook.

• Steady, high-revenue base across recent quarters: Operating revenue and total revenue have hovered in the mid-teens billions per quarter, with Q4 2025 showing about $13.60B in revenue, signaling a durable, large-scale network business.
• Consistently positive quarterly net income to common shareholders: Net income attributable to common shareholders has generally run around the $1.1B–$1.5B range per quarter in 2025, with Q4 2025 at about $1.332B, indicating ongoing profitability behind strong operating performance.
• Robust operating cash flow supports large capex: Cash flow from continuing operating activities (CFO) in 2025 quarters has been strong, with CFO around $3.6B–$4.5B (e.g., Q3 2025 about $4.48B) and capex typically in the $2.9B–$3.3B range, showing the business generates ample cash to fund network investments.
• Free cash flow generally positive in 2025: Because CFO often exceeds capital expenditure in these quarters (for example, CFO around $4.48B vs. capex roughly $3.05B in Q3 2025; CFO around $3.76B vs. capex around $3.34B in Q4 2025), Charter typically produces positive free cash flow to deploy to deleveraging, returns, or further capex.
• Earnings per share trend has been solidly positive in 2025: Diluted EPS in Q4 2025 reached about $10.27, with other 2025 quarters also posting meaningful per-share earnings, signaling improving profitability on a per-share basis as the business scales.
• Large asset base and high intangible/goodwill levels reflect scale: Total assets around $150B+ in 2025, with intangible assets and goodwill totaling tens of billions (intangibles ~$68–70B, goodwill ~$29–30B), highlighting Charter’s substantial network and brand investments but also implying potential impairment risk if conditions deteriorate.
• Heavy leverage remains a defining characteristic: Long-term debt typically sits near $90B+, with total liabilities around $130B+, and equity comparatively small (mid-teens to low-tens of billions). This shows a very high debt load relative to equity, which can impact financial flexibility and interest expense sensitivity.
• Financing activity fluctuates due to debt issuance and repayments: Quarterly net cash from financing activities can swing between inflows and outflows, reflecting ongoing debt issuances and repayments to fund capex and other uses; this makes financing cash flows less predictable as a standalone signal of liquidity.
• Interest-related headwinds persist: Interest & investment income lines and interest expense dynamics continue to act as a drag on pretax income, given Charter’s substantial debt load and high annual interest costs in many quarters (e.g., negative impact of roughly $1.25B–$1.27B on some quarters’ pretax income).
• Liquidity profile shows relatively modest cash reserves vs. debt load: Cash and equivalents on hand are typically modest (hundreds of millions to just under $1B per quarter), which against a multi-year debt base suggests a liquidity cushion that could tighten if cash flow dips or capex accelerates.