Can Charter Communications Stock Hit $170

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Charter Communications (CHTR) stock is 71.6% below its three-year high of May 16, 2025. Any climb to $170 from its November 9 close of $121.20 depends on whether Charter's free cash flow, lower than a year earlier, grows again while the company pays down debt. The stock has risen 40% or more within a calendar year in six of the last ten years. Its free cash flow equals 27.7% of its market value, against 4.2% for the median S&P 500 company, a yield that marks either a business on sale or one the market expects to shrink. So how solid is Charter's cash?

Charter Has Kept Producing Cash For Three Years

Charter's free cash flow, the cash left after paying for its network, has stayed above zero in every twelve-month period from September 2023 to September 2026, ranging from $2.88 billion to $4.58 billion. The latest twelve months brought $3.93 billion, down from $4.39 billion a year earlier. A shareholder owns a share of that cash whether or not Charter pays it out, just as with profit. The share price tends to follow once the market recognizes that cash, more so when it grows.

Charter sells internet, video and mobile service, retaining 23.1% of its sales as operating profit. By comparison, the S&P 500 taken as a single company retains 19.0%. Most of the cash Charter's operations produce goes straight back into its network. Over the same twelve months, capital spending consumed 75.5% of the $16.0 billion produced by operations.

The debt comes before shareholders. Net debt was $109 billion at September 30, against a market value of $14.2 billion. Operating profit covered interest 2.5 times, and management expects most of its fourth-quarter free cash flow to go to cutting debt.

Charter Is Losing More Internet Customers

On its November 6 call, management said the original Charter business lost 156,000 internet customers in the third quarter of fiscal 2026, compared with 109,000 a year earlier. The Cox business, which Charter took over on August 19, 2026, lost another 77,000. Management pointed to more fixed wireless competition than a year ago, fiber overlap and aggressive promotions by certain competitors.

Internet is Charter's largest segment, at $23.8 billion of revenue in fiscal 2025. Before Cox was added, Charter's revenue fell from a year earlier in each of the three quarters to June 2026, by between 1.0% and 2.3%. Its operating margin was 24.4% a year earlier, above today's level. In the third quarter, Charter also booked a one-time, non-cash charge of about $6.3 billion on the original business's cable franchises. Management said the charge drove a fall in net income for the quarter. On those figures, Charter looks closer to a business the market expects to shrink slowly than to one simply on sale.

Management's answer relies on a new operating model built to win more internet customers, plus $2 billion of yearly operating cost savings targeted within a year and a half. Management gave no date for a return to growth.

Can Charter's Cash Grow While It Pays Down Debt?

Management expects exactly that, forecasting significant free cash flow growth over the next several years, helped by lower capital spending as the company finishes its rural build-out and network upgrade. Still, that remains a forecast, and free cash flow over the latest twelve months sat below the prior year.

As for debt, management put net debt at 3.93 times its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization excluding transition expense over the past twelve months. The company aims to reach 3.5 times within three years of closing its Cox and Liberty Broadband deals.

Charter is expected to report fourth-quarter results in January 2027. Free cash flow for that quarter, which marks the first full period with Cox integrated into Charter, is the measure to watch.

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