Cable One Misses Second Quarter 2022 Broadband Targets as More Fixed Wireless Competition Looms

Cable One added 1,300 residential broadband customers in second quarter 2022, soundly missing analysts’ consensus estimates of 5,200 additions. While some wrote off the miss as part of the overall decline in broadband growth the rest of the industry is experiencing -- the top three publicly traded cable operators either reported flat or negative broadband customer growth in the second quarter -- MoffettNathanson senior analyst Craig Moffett feared it could be a sign of stiffer competition from fixed wireless access providers. Cable One, like the rest of the cable industry, has seen its stock price slip in 2022. But even through that difficulty, Cable One has enjoyed one of the strongest trading multiples in the cable business, mainly because its largely rural footprint was free from serious fiber broadband competition and its relatively low market penetrations meant it had a long runway for growth. Moffett noted that those days may be over as fixed wireless offerings take hold.