Based on the aggregated intelligence of 180,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, U.S. cable operator Charter Communications (CHTR -0.33%) has received an alarming one-star ranking.
With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Charter and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.
Charter facts
Headquarters (founded) |
St. Louis (1999) |
Market Cap |
$8.6 billion |
Industry |
Cable and satellite |
Trailing-12-Month Revenue |
$7.5 billion |
Management |
CEO Thomas Rutledge (since 2012) CFO Christopher Winfrey (since 2011) |
Return on Equity (average, past 3 years) |
(54%) |
Cash/Debt |
$700 million / $12.8 billion |
Competitors |
Comcast Time Warner Cable |
On CAPS, 70% of the 27 members who have rated Charter believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward.
Just yesterday, one of those Fools, Clint35, succinctly summed up the Charter bear case for our community:
Way overvalued! Lots of debt. Not profitable on an [EPS] basis. Not making much money on a cash flow basis either. On their latest earnings report sales improved by about 4% compared to the year before. So even if they earned $1.00 per share, the P/E would be around 85. That's for a company growing sales at about 4% a year! Absolutely nuts!
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