Charter downgraded to Sector Weight from Overweight at KeyBanc

KeyBanc analyst Brandon Nispel downgraded Charter Communications (CHTR) to Sector Weight from Overweight without a price target. The analyst sees a lack of visibility in Charter’s EBITDA margin expansion, contrary to the firm’s view on peers. KeyBanc likes the company’s converged connectivity strategy, but says messaging around the financial impacts has been poor. While Charter can still produce improving broadband subscriber trends in 2023 and 2024, along with improving EBITDA, many of the same factor exposures can be achieved through a combination of owning WideOpenWest (WOW), Cable One (CABO), and Comcast (CMCSA), the firm contends.