Good news for employees at communications giant Charter Communications (CHTR), though for shareholders, not so much. Charter is getting together a new program which will make a lot more shareholders out of their employees by offering longer-term employees shares to stick around. Shareholders were actually pleased with this stock dilution—perhaps hoping for better results from less brain-drain—and sent shares up nearly 2% in Thursday afternoon’s trading.
Elevate Your Investing Strategy:
- Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence.
Essentially, Charter is opening up a new plan that will offer payroll deductions to buy shares of company stock. This by itself is not such a big deal; employees could just go buy stock themselves through any of a dozen platforms. But Charter plans to sweeten the pot by offering matching restricted stock units, which would then vest after three years with the company.
Employees will be allowed to purchase as much as $5,000 worth of stock annually, or a little over 11 shares at current prices. The longer the worker has been with Charter, the more they will get in matching funds, reports note. It would ultimately produce what Jessica Fischer, Charter’s chief financial officer, calls “…an environment where employees could see themselves as owners of the company….”
And Speaking of New Employees, Sort Of….
Charter also promoted one of its long-term employees to be the new Chief Technology and Information Officer: Jake Perlman. Perlman will be handling software development and information technology at Charter, including Spectrum operations. Perlman will have no shortage of operations to handle, including mobile, Wi-Fi and internet operations, and video as well.
Perlman formerly served as the Chief Information Officer for Bright House Networks, which Charter acquired back in 2016. Perlman came to Charter with the acquisition, and has been there ever since, handling software development and information technology operations as well.
Is Charter Communications a Good Stock to Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on CHTR stock based on eight Buys, five Holds, and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 49.12% rally in its share price over the past year, the average CHTR price target of $423.44 per share implies 0.46% upside potential.
