Can Charter Communications Stock Jump 40%?

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Charter Communications (CHTR) has a case for a 40% jump in its stock if Spectrum Mobile, its phone service, can help it stop losing Internet customers. A rise that size is not rare for these shares, which climbed 40% or more within the year in six of the last ten calendar years. Yet the stock fell 57.1% over the past year, while the S&P 500 gained 14.0%. You probably see a shrinking cable company. A fast-growing phone business sits inside it, and that is the contradiction. So how big has Spectrum Mobile become?

Spectrum Mobile Had Over 12.5 Million Lines In July

Charter added 1.7 million Spectrum Mobile lines over the twelve months to June 2026, marking growth of 16%, management said on the July 24, 2026 call. Management also called Charter the fastest-growing mobile provider in its footprint. The business has room left, too, as management said only about 20% of Charter’s Internet customers also take its mobile service.

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Cox gives Charter a new market for Spectrum Mobile. Charter completed its deal for Cox Communications on August 20, 2026, and said Spectrum pricing and packaging would launch in all Cox markets in mid-September. Management described mobile in the Cox footprint as very underpenetrated. Spectrum Mobile is adding lines fast so far, and most of Charter’s customers have yet to take it.

Is Spectrum Mobile Keeping Charter’s Internet Customers?

Spectrum Mobile helps keep the customers who take it, but it has not yet stopped Charter’s overall losses. Internet customers who also buy Charter’s mobile service leave nearly 40% less often than those who do not, management said on the July 24 call.

Yet the company lost 172,000 Internet customers in fiscal Q2 2026, counting homes and small businesses. Management tied the drop to fewer new connections, while churn, the rate at which customers leave, was essentially flat. Management named the competition behind the weak sign-ups, pointing to more fixed wireless, people using mobile instead of home Internet, and fiber overlap, with aggressive promotions from some rivals.

That is where the case for mobile falls short so far. The benefit of mobile, as management describes it, is that customers leave less often, but management named weaker sign-ups as the main reason for the Internet customer weakness. Management expects Charter to stabilize and return to broadband growth over time as the growth of new competition subsides, but that is a forecast, not a result.

How Much Debt Does Charter Carry?

At the end of June 2026, Charter carried $96.7 billion of total debt, an amount equal to 763.9% of its market value. For the S&P 500, debt equals 19.4% of market value. The shares look cheap at 2.6 times trailing earnings, against 22.6 for the S&P 500, but every share comes with a large claim from lenders ahead of it. This multiple and the June debt figure both predate Charter’s August 20, 2026 closing of its Cox deal and Liberty Broadband purchase, so neither reflects the combined company.

Management wants to bring that debt down. Charter’s net debt was 4.18 times its twelve-month adjusted EBITDA, a measure of operating earnings, at the end of fiscal Q2 2026, and management has lowered its target to 3.5 times. Charter said in August that Jessica Fischer, the finance chief who gave that ratio on the call, would step down on October 15, 2026. Management expects to reach that target within three years of closing the Cox and Liberty Broadband deals.

Revenue fell from a year earlier in each of the last four quarters, including a 1.7% drop in fiscal Q2 2026. If Spectrum Mobile does not turn the Internet losses around, Charter will have to cut that debt out of a business that is still shrinking.

Charter’s mobile lines are still growing fast, while its Internet customer count is still falling. The change in Internet customers is the number to watch when Charter reports its fiscal Q3 2026 results, expected in November 2026.

How To Act On CHTR?

Now you know Charter Communications better. Our purpose is to inform you so you can decide for yourself, and acting on one stock, in either direction, carries its own risk.

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