What Happened?
Shares of internet, cable TV, and phone provider Cable One (NYSE:CABO) fell 19.5% in the morning session after the company reported mixed first-quarter 2026 results that missed revenue expectations.
The company's revenue fell 7.3% year over year to $353 million, falling short of Wall Street's estimate of $359.4 million. In contrast, its GAAP profit of $6.12 per share was 0.6% above analysts’ consensus estimates.
A key point of concern for investors was the decline in customers, as residential data subscribers fell by 57,900 year on year. The company also missed on adjusted EBITDA, which came in at $183.3 million versus estimates of $186.3 million. The revenue miss and significant subscriber losses likely overshadowed the narrow earnings beat, driving the negative investor sentiment.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Cable One’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 58 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Cable One and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.
The biggest move we wrote about over the last year was 12 months ago when the stock dropped 36.7% on the news that the company reported weak first quarter 2025 results: Its number of residential data subscribers missed along with its revenue, EPS, and EBITDA. Sales fell nearly 6% from the same quarter last year, dragged by a 4.5% drop in residential data revenue and a nearly 16% plunge in residential video revenue, as Cable One neared the end of its legacy video product phase.
Also, management suspended the dividend to conserve over $200 million over the next three years, signaling a pivot toward debt reduction and internal investment over shareholder returns. Overall, this was a nightmare quarter.
Cable One is down 27.4% since the beginning of the year, and at $75.62 per share, it is trading 71.1% below its 52-week high of $261.99 from April 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Cable One’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $41.86.
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