Charter pares 1Q losses more than expected
Charter Communications pares first-quarter losses more than forecast; revenue tops views
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Shares of Charter Communications Inc, rose Tuesday after the eighth largest provider of pay TV services in the nation reported that it pared losses in the first quarter, even though costs grew faster than revenue.
The net loss in the three months through March 31 came to $42 million, or 42 cents per share. That's below the loss of $94 million, or 95 cents per share, a year ago.
Analysts, on average, expected a loss of 48 cents per share, according to data provider FactSet.
Revenue grew 5 percent to $1.92 billion, up from $1.83 billion last year. That's slightly better than the $1.90 billion analysts were expecting.
The company overcame the loss of about 24,000 residential video customers by hooking up 99,000 customers to the Internet and 59,000 people to phone service.
Charter ended the quarter with 3.97 million residential video subscribers, 3.88 million residential Internet customers and 1.97 million residential phone subscribers.
Shares rose $4.44, or 4.2 percent, to $109.47 in midday trading Tuesday, after reaching an all-time high of $111.44 earlier in the session.
