Charter Communications shares plummeted more than 20% in early trading Friday after the company delivered first-quarter results that disappointed Wall Street.

Earnings per share of $9.17 on a diluted basis fell well short of analysts’ consensus estimate of $10.63. Total revenue dipped 1% to $13.6 billion, hitting the Street’s target.

Charter lost 120,000 broadband customers during the ‌quarter, more than twice the decline of 59,000 in the year-earlier period. The downturn was bigger than the 100,000 losses projected by analysts.

Shares in Charter had fallen 21% to around $190 an hour into Friday’s trading session. They are down 5% in 2026 to date and are within sight of a 10-year low of $180.38 established in January.

The company shed 51,000 residential video customers and 60,000 overall, which was better than the estimated decline of 85,872. In Charter’s earnings release, it credited “simplified pricing and packaging and benefits from the inclusion of programmers’ streaming applications in Spectrum’s expanded basic video packages” for the better-than-expected video numbers.

Charter had ‌12 million residential video customers at the end of the quarter. For now, that makes the company the No. 1 pay-TV provider in the U.S. YouTube TV passed 10 million subscribers last year, according to programmers negotiating distribution deals with them, and is expected to become the top operator soon.

The number of mobile lines, for both residential and small business customers, increased 17% over the prior-year quarter to reach 12.1 million. The mobile business has been growing significantly for Charter, Comcast and other cable operators. While the segment has been a welcome bonus for the companies, they don’t own wireless spectrum and must rely on wholesale agreements with Verizon and other partners, which limits the upside.

During a conference call with analysts after the earnings release, company execs tried to keep the focus on their pending $34.5 billion merger with smaller rival Cox Communications. The deal will deliver $800 million in synergies, CFO Jessica Fischer estimated, with the exec and CEO Chris Winfrey detailing many ways they see the two companies’ strengths making for a better combined entity. The FCC and the DOJ have signed off on the merger, which Charter expects to close by the summer.