OPTU

Optimum Communications' second quarter results reflected ongoing challenges in its core broadband and video businesses, with revenue and earnings per share coming in below Wall Street expectations. Despite these setbacks, the market responded positively as management pointed to sequential improvement in broadband subscriber losses and progress on cost controls. CEO Dennis Mathew emphasized the company's disciplined execution, including reduced operating expenses and a focus on higher-value customer relationships, highlighting initiatives such as the rollout of AI-powered customer service tools and operational streamlining. Is now the time to buy OPTU? Find out in our full research report (it’s free). Revenue: $2.02 billion vs analyst estimates of $2.03 billion (5.8% year-on-year decline, 0.5% miss) EPS (GAAP): -$0.65 vs analyst estimates of -$0.15 (significant miss) Adjusted EBITDA: $785.7 million vs analyst estimates of $788.3 million (38.8% margin, in line) Operating Margin: 8.2%, down from 14.5% in the same quarter last year Broadband Subscribers: down 214,000 year on year Market Capitalization: $317.9 million While we enjoy listening to the management’s commentary, our favorite part of earnings calls is the analyst questions. Those are unscripted and can often highlight topics that management teams would rather avoid or topics where the answer is complicated. Here is what has caught our attention. Samuel McHugh (BNP) asked about the impact of exiting low-penetration rural passings and whether these had always been low-value markets; CEO Dennis Mathew explained these areas have historically had minimal contribution and the exits would sharpen operational focus. Vikash Harlalka (New Street Research) questioned whether broadband subscriber losses would improve versus last year; Mathew was optimistic about stabilization from new offers and operational changes, but noted results would take several quarters to materialize. Craig Moffett (MoffettNathanson) inquired about the effect of five-year price lock offers and HFC upgrades on ARPU and competitiveness; Mathew highlighted improved sales productivity and early traction from converged product bundles. Craig Moffett (MoffettNathanson) also asked about competition from Starlink; Mathew replied that impact was nominal in the quarter but noted the company is closely monitoring developments in rural markets. Michael Rollins (Citi) sought clarity on churn management and market performance differences; Mathew pointed to better results in mature, competitive markets and stressed the upcoming role of marketing technology and automation in proactive retention. In the coming quarters, the StockStory team will be monitoring (1) signs of stabilization in broadband subscriptions following the rollout of new pricing and retention initiatives, (2) the pace and impact of fiber expansion and HFC network upgrades on customer acquisition, and (3) further operational simplification from divestitures or market exits. Execution on customer engagement and digital transformation initiatives will also be critical markers for progress. Optimum Communications currently trades at $0.84, up from $0.78 just before the earnings. In the wake of this quarter, is it a buy or sell? See for yourself in our full research report (it’s free for active Edge members). ONE MORE THING: Top 6 Stocks for This Week. This market is separating quality stocks from expensive ones fast. AI is taking down whole sectors with no warning. In a rotation this fast, you need more than a list of good companies. Our AI system flagged Palantir before it ran 1,662% between October 2022 and February 2026. AppLovin before it ran 753% between February 2024 and February 2026. Nvidia before it ran 1,178% between January 2023 and February 2026. Each week it produces 6 new names that pass the same tests. Get Our Top 6 Stocks for Free HERE. Stocks that have made our list include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+1,460% between June 2020 and June 2025) as well as under-the-radar businesses like the once-micro-cap company Tecnoglass (+1,552% between June 2020 and June 2025). Find your next big winner with StockStory today.

Image source: The Motley Fool. Thursday, Aug. 6, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. ET Vice President of Investor Relations - Sarah Freedman Chairman and Chief Executive Officer - Dennis Mathew Chief Financial Officer - Marc Sirota Operator: Good day, everyone. Welcome to the Optimum Communications Conference Call. [Operator Instructions] This call is being recorded. If you have any objections, please disconnect at this time. I'd now like to turn the call over to Sarah Freedman, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead. Sarah Freedman: Thank you, and good morning. Welcome to the Optimum's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. I am joined today by Optimum's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dennis Mathew; and Chief Financial Officer, Marc Sirota. Dennis and Marc will walk you through our second quarter results and then be available for a question-and-answer session. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that today's presentation contains forward-looking statements. Please take a moment to review the cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements included on Slide 2 of our presentation. We will also reference certain non-GAAP financial measures today. Reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release, which is available on the Investor Relations section of our website. With that, I'll turn the call over to Dennis. Dennis Mathew: Thank you, Sarah, and good morning, everyone. Our second quarter results reflect disciplined execution. We generated total revenue of approximately $2 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $786 million. Broadband subscriber net losses improved sequentially to 40,000. We added approximately 50,000 mobile lines and convergence ARPU grew year-over-year. We expanded gross margin and adjusted EBITDA margin, including operating expense improvement of approximately $30 million year-over-year. We continue to operate in a challenging environment, but we are encouraged by our progress and remain focused on what we can control, maintaining disciplined cost management, while continuing to invest in initiatives that support long-term growth and position the business for sustained success. As we disclosed in our 8-K in June, we have a clear strategy in our long-range plan to do exactly that. While the transformation will take time and will require a meaningful reset of our balance sheet, we are actively executing against the strategic pillars that we believe will improve performance, delivering simple, broader offers with clear value propositions, richer customer experience, simplifying service delivery through operational improvements and investing thoughtfully in our network and capabilities. In the second quarter, we delivered against these pillars. We continued to execute on a simplified go-to-market strategy, strengthened customer retention efforts and sharpened base management to build high-value customer relationships and compete more effectively in the current environment. We advanced our customer experience transformation as we continued our rollout of Google CES, AI-powered network management, frontline tools and new billing solutions. We improved productivity through stronger cross-functional execution, disciplined cost management, deeper use of data and AI-powered performance management and workforce optimization. And finally, we continue to invest in fiber expansion and network modernization across our footprint. Alongside these actions, we took steps to enhance our financial flexibility and strengthen our capital structure. Last month, we successfully completed the previously announced tender offer, representing another important milestone in that process, which Marc will discuss in greater detail shortly. We also published our long-range plan, providing stakeholders with greater transparency into our strategic priorities, operating objectives and long-term financial outlook. Collectively, these actions reinforce our commitment to strengthening the business, advancing our capital structure and increasing flexibility to continue investing in long-term value creation. In addition, we simplified our operations by divesting noncore businesses. In early Q2, we completed the divestiture of an advertising agency services business that generated approximately $100 million of revenue in full year '25 and had an immaterial impact to adjusted EBITDA. We made the decision to exit a small number of low-density noncore markets within our West footprint, and we expect those customers to transition to other service providers during the third quarter. Additionally, in the coming months, we expect to wind down operations of New York Interconnect, an advanced advertising joint venture that allows marketers to purchase TV and digital ad space across multiple MVPDs in the New York DMA. Going forward, Spectrum will expand their advertising business to provide many of the products and services of New York Interconnect, including continued representation of portions of Optimum's advertising inventory. Taken together, these actions support our strategy to simplify the business and focus on our highest priority growth opportunities. Next, I'll turn to our focus on strengthening high-value customer relationships on Slide 4. Our strategy is centered on strengthening customer relationships by delivering a more integrated and converged experience across broadband, mobile, video and value-added services. By leveraging the breadth of our portfolio, we're making it easier for customers to choose, connect and stay with us while driving stronger acquisition, retention and engagement, which creates a stronger foundation for long-term value and growth. Broadband remains the cornerstone of this strategy. While the competitive landscape continues to evolve with the expansion of fiber overbuilders and fixed wireless providers across our footprint, we are executing targeted initiatives to improve performance and reinforce our competitive position. These efforts are helping improve customer acquisition rates and gross add performance while providing insights that are shaping a broader evolution of our go-to-market approach. As we scale these learnings, we are delivering simpler, more compelling offers that better reflect market dynamics and evolving customer needs. Demand for our broadband product remains healthy and more than half of new broadband customers continue to choose our 1 gig or higher offerings, reinforcing the value customers place on higher speed connectivity and the quality of our network. We also see encouraging signs in several of our larger markets where our execution and competitive positioning continue to improve. This drove improved win share and year-over-year growth in gross add performance in the second quarter in key markets. At the same time, we remain focused on reducing churn across our footprint, particularly in our West footprint, where competitive pressure remains the most intense. Our base management and acquisition strategy is centered on multiproduct relationships, which drive stronger, healthier and longer tenured subscribers. Leveraging our converged and data-driven approach, we are seeing a higher percentage of new customer additions taking multiple products and services compared to the portion of customers taking only broadband. On mobile, we saw our best ever second quarter mobile trends, which increased mobile and broadband convergence penetration to approximately 9% at the end of the second quarter. Mobile is central to how we manage and grow our base. We're driving higher penetration through targeted upsell and cross-sell, simplifying our offers and expanding multiline adoption, taking a customer-first, data-driven approach to streamline device financing, improve quality of sale and strengthen network quality. This week, we advanced that strategy further, expanding our multiyear agreement with T-Mobile to access its 5G stand-alone network, delivering faster, more reliable service, a broader device lineup, including wearables, and stronger roaming, business and rural connectivity. By extending mobile connectivity beyond smartphones to wearables and a growing universe of connected devices, this capability substantially expands our addressable market, multiplying the number of devices and revenue streams we can serve per household and business, and positioning us to capture a greater share of connectivity spend over time. Paired with our fiber network, this converged offering is expected to be a durable competitive advantage and a meaningful driver of long-term profitable growth. Similarly, we are increasing the penetration of our newer and more profitable E-Tier video offerings as customers respond to their simpler and more compelling value proposition. The E-Tier offerings now represent approximately 18% of our residential video base, up from 10% a year ago. Importantly, customers of these newer packages continue to demonstrate meaningfully lower churn than legacy offerings, reinforcing the role video plays in strengthening customer relationships and broadband retention. We're also continuing to thoughtfully expand our streaming offerings, giving customers direct access to popular streamers like Netflix and HBO Max, alongside targeted promotions like our Disney+ Hulu offer. The majority of customers who take these services keep them well past the promotional period, pointing to durable engagement and a growing base of recurring value. Beyond a la carte, we continue to enhance the value of our TV subscriptions, giving subscribers direct-to-consumer app access to services like FOX One, Paramount Plus, and STARZ when those channels are in their packages. Moving to Slide 5. Throughout the organization, we continue to identify opportunities to simplify processes, enhance productivity, leverage AI and automation and expand digital capabilities so that we can execute efficiently while providing a better experience for our customers. Operating expenses, excluding share-based compensation, declined approximately 5% year-over-year in the year-to-date period and by 4% year-over-year in the second quarter. This reflects our continued focus on improving operational efficiency across the business and was driven in part by a few key areas. First, we lowered sales acquisition costs by approximately 10% by optimizing our channel mix, managing media more efficiently and improving sales yield, allowing us to acquire customers more efficiently. Second, we reduced customer activity with fewer truck rolls and lower call volumes as we continue to improve network reliability, expand digital self-service and simplify the end-to-end customer journey and experience. The total volume of truck rolls and service calls collectively declined by over 20% year-over-year in the second quarter. Many of these improvements are enabled by AI capabilities embedded throughout our organization. As I mentioned earlier, one example is our deployment of Google CES, Google's Customer Engagement Suite, an AI-powered customer service platform that provides agents with real-time assistance during customer interactions alongside AI virtual agents powered by Google Gemini. Together, these capabilities help improve the customer journey, deliver a more personalized experience and resolve issues more efficiently. This work directly influences point #3. By operating more efficiently, we have optimized our workforce and reduced both internal and external resources. These structural and sustainable efficiencies have improved our operating expense profile while we maintain strong operational execution and deliver a consistent customer experience. In conclusion, we remain pragmatic about where the business stands. Broadband continues to face pressure and the competitive environment remains intense, but our focus is on the areas we can control and execute against every day. Importantly, we did what we said we were going to do. We delivered on our commitments by growing mobile, improving efficiency, expanding margins and simplifying the business. Those results demonstrate our ability to execute consistently even in a challenging environment, and they have strengthened the foundation of the business. That same disciplined approach gives us confidence in the path ahead. We are applying the same focus and execution to stabilizing broadband and strengthening the overall business. We believe we can make meaningful progress, but we also recognize that these improvements will take time and will not happen overnight. We are building a simpler, more efficient and more customer-focused company for the long term, and our team remains committed to executing that strategy every day. With that, let me turn the call over to Marc, who will walk through our second quarter subscriber and financial results. Marc Sirota: Thank you, Dennis. Starting on Slide 6, I'll review our subscriber trends. First, on broadband. Net subscriber losses were 40,000 in the quarter, and we ended with approximately 4 million broadband subscribers. Our MDU or multi-dwelling unit property footprint represents about 20% of our total footprint. We have remained focused on strengthening our MDU subscriber business by shifting from individual customer relationships to more bulk agreements with property owners under long-term contracts. From these efforts, in the second quarter, we saw an additional 9,000 broadband connects and 8,000 video connects, driven by a bulk relationship portfolio conversion. Including this bulk deal, overall broadband subscriber gross adds were broadly stable year-over-year, reflecting our ability to attract new customers and reinforce the strength of the Optimum brand. At the same time, we continue to experience elevated churn, primarily driven by heightened promotional activity from competitors. While the competitive environment remains intense, we are focused on the levers within our control, staying agile with our go-to-market strategies, ensuring our offers remain compelling, continuously improving the customer value proposition and accelerating our base management initiatives to deepen customer relationships. In mobile, we continue to build momentum in the second quarter. We added 50,000 net lines, marking our best second quarter results to date, and growing mobile lines by approximately 33% year-over-year. In the second quarter, we surpassed the 700,000 milestone, ending the quarter with 724,000 mobile lines. Looking ahead, we plan to build on this momentum through ongoing targeted incentives and simplified offers, while further supporting mobile customer retention. Video subscriber net losses were 46,000 in the second quarter. Included in this is a benefit from the bulk agreement I just mentioned. The second quarter represented our best quarterly video subscriber performance in 6 years. We continue to see encouraging underlying trends, demonstrating the impact of our enhanced customer choice and flexibility. Finally, on fiber, we added 20,000 customers in the quarter, bringing our total to 749,000 fiber customers, up over 13% year-over-year. As expected, net addition trends moderated compared to the prior year, reflecting our intentional and disciplined approach to customer migrations over the last few quarters. Sequentially, however, fiber net additions increased modestly, driven by incremental net new customer growth on our fiber network. We continue to view fiber as a meaningful long-term value driver and remain focused on deploying capital where we see the strongest returns. Overall, while competitive conditions remain challenging, the quarter reflected momentum across several of our key subscriber metrics, including sequential broadband trend improvement, continued mobile growth, strong video results and improving fiber additions. Moving to Slide 7. I will review our Q2 financial performance. Total revenue of approximately $2 billion declined 5.8% year-over-year. Excluding the previously mentioned advertising agency services business divestment, revenue would have declined 5.1% year-over-year. Consistent with recent quarters, residential video and our video-related news and advertising business remain the largest driver of year-over-year revenue declines. Those businesses accounted for $92 million or approximately 75% of our revenue decline. Our focus with these businesses continues to be on improving profitability while looking to slow the rate of secular declines. Despite revenue pressure, we delivered an all-time high gross margin of 71% in the quarter, up 180 basis points year-over-year. This improvement was driven by the concentration of revenue declines in lower-margin areas of the business, helping to mitigate the revenue impact of declining video volumes. Residential connectivity and all other, which includes residential broadband, mobile and telephony, as well as other revenue declined year-over-year by 3.6%, reflecting broadband subscriber pressure, partially offset by mobile revenue growth. Business services revenue of $366 million grew 1.2% year-over-year, driven by Lightpath revenue growth of 7%. Excluding the divestment of the advertising agency services business, News and Advertising revenue would have declined 4.7% year-over-year, reflecting an underlying softer advertising environment driven by the macroeconomic uncertainty. As we expect total subscriber volumes to continue to impact our top line performance, we continue to anticipate total revenue to decline mid-single digits in the full year when excluding the divestiture in News and Advertising. Turning to ARPU. Residential ARPU declined by 1.1% year-over-year or by $1.46, driven primarily by product mix shift away from video. Video's contribution to year-over-year decline was just over $3, which was partially offset by non-video ARPU growth of $1.57, mainly tied to convergence. As Dennis mentioned, convergence remains central to our strategy and convergence ARPU, a metric we introduced last quarter, grew 2.4% year-over-year to $79.80. Convergence ARPU is calculated by dividing the average monthly revenue from broadband and mobile services by the average number of residential broadband relationships and excludes mobile-only customers. We expect convergence ARPU to become an increasingly important metric on how we evaluate the business, providing a more meaningful view of customer value by capturing the combined economics of the relationship and the impact of bundling on unit economics. As we look to the second half of the year, we expect tougher ARPU comparisons, particularly in the fourth quarter as promotional pricing held relatively steady as we benefited from rate actions at the end of 2025. That said, we will continue to evaluate our go-to-market and promotional strategies and the opportunities to optimize pricing and rates, while remaining agile as market conditions evolve throughout the second half of the year. Continuing on Slide 8. Our results this quarter reflect operational improvement and cost discipline Dennis mentioned earlier. Gross margin reached 71%, expanding 180 basis points year-over-year. As I just discussed, this reflects both product mix shift towards higher-margin products such as broadband as well as disciplined execution to improve all product margins. Adjusted EBITDA of $786 million declined 2.2% year-over-year and adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 140 basis points to 38.8%. Margin expansion reflects disciplined cost management, including lower programming and direct costs as well as continued operating expense efficiencies that partially offset lower revenue. Programming and direct costs declined by over 11%, driven by programming costs down over 14% year-over-year. Other operating expense, excluding share-based compensation, was down over 4% year-over-year in the second quarter. Underlying OpEx efficiencies are driven by continued call volume declines, fewer service visits and salary cost reduction driven by workforce optimization. As we continue to advance these efforts, we are deploying additional tools and initiatives to further optimize operating expenses over time with a continued focus on enhancing the customer experience. Given the expected declines in revenues, partially offset by continued discipline on both direct costs and OpEx, we continue to expect adjusted EBITDA to decline low- to mid-single digits in the full year 2026. Turning to Slide 9. I'll walk through our capital expenditures and the progress we are making across our network. Similar to last quarter, we've broken out our capital expenditures between growth, maintenance and Lightpath capital to provide greater transparency into how we are allocating capital. In the second quarter, capital expenditures of $320 million represented an approximately 16% capital intensity and declined almost 17% year-over-year, tied to timing of capital spend. We continue to expect total capital expenditure between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion in the full year of 2026, with higher second half spend compared to the first half. We ended the second quarter with approximately 10.1 million total passings and 3.2 million fiber passings with over 220,000 total new passings added over the last 12 months. We continue to expect total passings expansion in the full year 2026 to be consistent with prior year trends of 150,000 to 175,000 passing additions. This excludes decommission passings, which are expected to slightly reduce our total passings count in the third quarter. Looking ahead, our growth capital envelope will remain focused on building fiber in new markets, simultaneously growing our fiber footprint and our total footprint as well as upgrading our HFC networks. Over the coming years, we plan to upgrade the majority of our network to multi-gig capabilities, enabling us to support growing bandwidth demand and the increased network usage driven by expanding adoption of AI-powered applications and connected devices. Today, our fiber network offers up to 8 gig symmetrical speeds, and we began launching multi-gig capabilities in select HFC communities late last year, now offering download speeds of up to 2 gigabits per second in parts of our West Virginia HFC markets. Last month, Lightpath announced new fiber builds to support 2 hyperscale data center campuses in Michigan and Wisconsin as well as announced a second infrastructure tenant on its Pennsylvania AI-grade fiber infrastructure build. These projects further extend Lightpath's AI-grade network to meet the growing capacity demand driven by artificial intelligence. To support this growth, we continue to expect annual Lightpath capital expenditures in the range of $200 million to $300 million, primarily supporting construction tied to these recently announced hyperscale contracts. Overall, we are taking a disciplined and return-focused approach to growth capital, making strategic investments to support long-term top line performance while retaining flexibility to adjust the pace of investment as operating conditions evolve. And last, turning to our capital structure. We have no remaining maturities in 2026, and our next significant maturities will begin in 2027. Addressing those maturities remain a top priority. As we have said previously, we believe that a meaningful debt reduction and a balance sheet reset are essential to continuing our transformation, competing effectively and investing thoughtfully to maximize long-term value for all stakeholders. Our weighted average cost of debt is 6.8%. Our weighted average life of debt is 2.8 years, and approximately 81% of our debt stack is fixed rate. As of June 30, ending cash available for operations includes approximately $880 million within the restricted and UnSub Group debt silos and $90 million at Lightpath. Total ending cash includes $28 million at other non-debt silo subsidiaries and $300 million, which was earmarked for the settlement of the previously announced tender offer. Through the successful tender offer completion, we repurchased 120 million Class A shares at $2.50 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $300 million. Following the completion of the tender offer, we had approximately 273 million shares outstanding and 206 million shares held in treasury. At the end of the quarter, our leverage is 8x the last 2 quarters annualized adjusted EBITDA. As Dennis mentioned, in June, we published a long-range plan, providing stakeholders with greater transparency into management's long-term strategy and financial outlook. A core premise of that plan is a stronger balance sheet that is foundational to everything we are working to achieve. The actions we announced in June reflect another important step toward our objectives. Our goal is to pursue a consensual comprehensive restructuring of the CSC Holdings debt through negotiations with our lenders. We believe that the measures we have taken increase the likelihood of a consensual comprehensive deal and mitigate the potential adverse impact of failing to achieve such a resolution. That work is ongoing, and we are approaching it deliberately with a goal of reaching an outcome that supports the long-term health of the business. Overall, this quarter reflects continued progress. We are improving execution, strengthening our financial foundation and continuing to invest in the capabilities that will support stronger operational and financial performance over the long term. With that, we will now take questions. Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our first question will come from Sam McHugh with BNP. Samuel McHugh: I have 3 questions, if you don't mind. The first one on the footprint decommissioning. It sounded like it could be maybe 30,000, 40,000 passings. I wonder if you could just help us on subscriber penetration and what kind of impact we should expect for Q3? That's one. Second question on the bulk agreement. Just wondering if the 9,000 is like a net new number. Was that MDU footprint already on net? And how should we think about kind of the ARPU for those customers? And then the third question was on the share repurchases, tender offer. You didn't cancel the shares. I just wonder if you could give us some context on why. And then on the shares outstanding, I think they only went down about 84 million. Can you just help us technically understand why it's only an 84 million reduction in shares outstanding and what that definition is maybe? Dennis Mathew: Thanks, Sam. On the footprint, it was 48,000 passings, very nominal penetration. We've been laser-focused on making sure we're honed in on the core business and where we can drive maximum impact. Our focus this year is to deliver -- get back to broadband growth, and we're prioritizing the initiatives and the efforts that are going to help us as a team focus and execute operationally at the highest level. So over this next quarter, we'll be going through that process, but we're confident that ultimately, this will help us really accelerate our ability to execute and drive growth and prioritize the geographies and the initiatives to really help us get there. On the bulk agreement, MDU is a meaningful opportunity for us. Since I joined, this is an area that we've been focused on and really making sure we've got the right team, the right structure. One of the big issues -- obviously, 20% of our footprint and so meaningful opportunity. One of the big issues that we had when I joined was that we were signing agreements that were nonexclusive. And so we had no protection, no real ability to drive long-term value through these arrangements. And so starting about 12, 18 months ago, we started to prioritize redoing existing agreements as well as all new agreements and converting them from nonexclusive in retail to bulk. This is a meaningful opportunity for us as I look at the next 18 to 24 months. This was a relationship we had that the team did an outstanding job in terms of working with the building and converting that from retail to bulk. And this is a funnel that we're laser-focused on as we optimize our products, as we optimize our go-to-market in MDU. Clearly, the bulk ARPUs are a bit different than retail ARPUs. But ultimately, we think long term, we can deliver much better long-term value by having these bulk agreements, and that's what we're prioritizing as we move forward. I'll pass it over to Marc to talk a little bit about your last question. Marc Sirota: Yes, Sam, we really won't comment beyond what we published back in June related to the transactions we completed. The shares that were purchased by CSC Investments II, they're held in treasury, but we won't comment beyond that. Samuel McHugh: Can I just ask you if you still have me an open follow-up? Dennis Mathew: Sure. Samuel McHugh: Yes. On the rural passings, you say it's nominal penetration. Was it always nominal? Or has it come down in the last 5 years due to competition? Like I'm just trying to understand if this was always kind of just rural low opportunity or whether it's changed in the last 4 or 5 years. Dennis Mathew: No, it's always been nominal. These are markets that are just, quite frankly, very challenging to service relative to our core footprint. And so we have to prioritize where we can deliver maximum impact, where we can maximize awareness, consideration, provide the best service. Since I joined, we've done this a bit where we've looked at the footprint and looked at where we can show up best in terms of delivering great products, great service, great network, and we are committed to that. We remain committed to serving rural footprints where we're able to do that in a highly effective fashion, particularly across our West. And so as we think about new build and growing our passings, we're going to continue to do that in a thoughtful fashion. But this was simply -- these have been always low and just been challenging, and we want to make sure that we're showing up the right way in the markets that we are servicing. Operator: Our next question will come from Vikash Harlalka with New Street Research. Vikash Harlalka: Three, if I may. Two sort of near-term questions and one on your long-term forecast. So in the near term, when I look at broadband losses for the year, losses have been higher by about 30,000 this year so far. You had a big step-up in subscriber losses in the back half of last year. When you sort of like think about the subscriber losses for the year, do you think you can improve upon last year's subscriber losses? Dennis Mathew: Yes. So on broadband, I'm optimistic in terms of the initiatives that we're putting in place to prioritize our path back to growth. Earlier this year, as you know, we took some actions to evolve our pricing and our packaging and our go-to-market strategy. And this was all about simplifying the offers across our footprint. And we had a couple of very specific goals and objectives. One is we wanted to improve our ability to execute operationally across the footprint, and we're seeing that. We're seeing improved sales channel productivity. We were particularly focused on inbound sales in e-comm, door-to-door and even in retail with mobile. And we are seeing, in some of those channels, all-time highs in terms of driving yield and driving productivity. And it's really exciting for us to see. And we're also focused on improving call volumes into the center, improving shoppers into e-comm, just really rightsizing and accelerating top of the funnel. The good news is we're seeing that happen across large portions of our footprint. And so we're excited that, that strategy is working. We're continuing to optimize it and really make sure that we're showing up the right way. But we think that these offers help us compete most effectively, and we'll continue to optimize as we go forward. But the reality is that there are certain markets where it's not just the offer. We need to do a better job in terms of improving customer service, the quality, the billing experience, and really drive up awareness and consideration. And so we have a whole host of initiatives specifically focused on that, that are going to help us improve customer experience, help us improve base management, which will ultimately help us reduce churn, because there are some markets, as we know, we're seeing more fierce competition than ever, and customer expectations are high. And so we're in the early innings, but we're seeing strong -- we're optimistic as we implement solutions like Google CES that will help us elevate our customer experience, really help us solve problems, customer issues faster, deliver self-service capabilities. We have a road map over the next couple of quarters to launch a new MarTech platform, which we don't have today. Today, everything is manual in terms of how we drive acquisition, how we drive our base management, a lot of manual intervention and e-mails, but this will allow us to do a much better job communicating to our customers, upselling products. We have other solutions that we are just in the early innings of launching, like BrightBill, to help us ensure that we provide the highest level of experience as it relates to billing accuracy and completeness and answer customer questions. And so all of these things together are helping us just improve our performance, both in terms of acquisition and then ultimately in terms of churn, so that we can stabilize broadband. This is a journey. This is something that's going to take us a couple of quarters. Many of these initiatives will take a couple of quarters for us to implement, but we're seeing a direct improvement as we implement these solutions. For example, we implemented Cresta to help us improve our frontline performance in sales channels. And we're seeing that benefit, and we're going to be rolling that out into care and retention as well. And so all these initiatives will help us drive performance and get us back to broadband growth. Vikash Harlalka: Very helpful. And then on broadband ARPU, it's been sort of flattish in the first 2 quarters of the year. How are you thinking about the rest of the year? Can you grow ARPU this year? Dennis Mathew: Yes. Let me just talk at a high level on our strategy for ARPU, and then I'll pass it on to Marc. But as you've heard us talk about in the past, we're really focused on convergence ARPU, and this new pricing and packaging is helping us do a couple of things. It's helping us sell in gig and multi-gig really at the highest levels ever. Almost 60% of our new customers are taking gig and multi-gig, which we're really excited about. It's also helping us drive mobile at the point of sale, and we're seeing some of the highest yield that we've seen ever in our channels in terms of being able to attach mobile. And we're really still in the early innings of some of our value-added services. As you've heard me say in the past, we've launched some new products like Total Care, like Home WiFi. And now we're really just getting into a rhythm of attaching these products and providing customers with a much more whole home solution that meets all of their needs. And we didn't even get to our new E-Tiers. Our new E-Tiers are providing incredible value, and we're seeing great success, strong attach at the point of sale for our packages like Entertainment TV, Extra and Everything. And so we're really focused on convergence ARPU and making sure that we're providing customers with maximum value, leveraging this robust product portfolio that we've launched in the past 18 months. Marc? Marc Sirota: Yes, Vikash, I would just add, really pleased on how we're managing ARPU. You saw that we simplified our offer strategy that Dennis just mentioned. And despite that, we were able to continue to upsell customers, we were getting the consideration of the phones. And then when we got the customers on the phone, we were able to show them the value of our services, again, 60% plus taking 1 gig services or above. So pleased to see the stability of our broadband ARPU given the offer set that we have in the marketplace. In fact, each of our product lines, broadband, video, mobile, and convergence ARPU actually all grew in the quarter. Again, we'll take a very disciplined approach in how we manage rate and volume here. Just for a full year outlook perspective, we have mentioned and we'll continue to reiterate that we do expect overall ARPUs to decline in the full year, just particularly as we comp against a pretty strong fourth quarter, if you recall. So really pleased on how the team is managing rate, and we'll continue to be nimble and react to market conditions as they arise. Vikash Harlalka: Got it. And then one question on your long-term forecast. When I look at the forecast that you put out for the Optimum West footprint, it suggested that broadband penetration will reach 26% in the long term. How are you thinking about market structure in that footprint in the long term that leads to penetration of only 26%. That just seems a bit low to us. Dennis Mathew: The plan that we issued is aggressive but achievable. And we've looked at the entire footprint and really made sure that we have a thoughtful strategy as we think about where we want to drive maximum impact, leveraging our new offers, driving customer experience, making it more simple to work with us as a company, driving digital, driving our network investments as well. And so look, the reality is that there's more competition in the West. We see now that the footprint is a little over 50% of fiber overbuilt. That's grown tremendously since I've started here. We also have fixed wireless competition across the footprint at over 80%. And so we're going to be taking a very surgical approach of making sure we identify where we can make maximum impact, where we can drive win back. There's certain markets where we've lost a tremendous amount of share, 10%, 15%, 20% of share. We're going to be going hard after those markets and making sure that we're showing up the right way, driving awareness, driving consideration. And at the same time, we're not fooling ourselves that, that 50% will likely grow to levels similar to where we are in the East, where the East is a little over 70% now, I can see the West growing to 70% or 80%. And so we're going to take a balanced approach where we're going to drive broadband stabilization and growth, but at the same time, do that in a financially, fiscally responsible manner, and that's part of the strategy that is reflected in the LRP. Operator: Our next question comes from Craig Moffett with MoffettNathanson. Craig Moffett: I wonder if we could stay on the topic of your broadband ARPU for a second. If you could just talk about the impact that your 5-year price lock offers have had. Are they mostly getting the phone to ring and you're selling customers into different price plans? Or are those largely the plans that customers are ending up in? And is it new customers or the existing base that's moving into those plans? And then you also talked about, in your prepared remarks, you're starting to upgrade a lot of your HFC plant in places like West Virginia. Can you just talk about the differences that you're seeing in places where you have upgraded HFC versus where you have gone all the way to FTTH and how you're competing differently in those markets? Dennis Mathew: Yes, absolutely, Craig. As I mentioned, part of the pricing and the packaging was helping us simplify the way we execute and also driving top of the funnel and we're seeing exactly that. We're really happy to see that the channels are performing at a very high level. And this is allowing our channels to spend more time solution selling. Over almost 60% of our new connects are now taking gig and multi-gig services, and they're purchasing additional products like mobile, like Total Care, like Whole Home WiFi. So it's a really great message that we're able to blanket our footprint with and it really drives efficiency when we talk about marketing and how we're going to market and our messaging on digital, in social, across all the different channels. And then we're able to really focus, get folks on our website, get folks to call, make it easier for our door-to-door teams, make it easier for our outbound teams to really just have a conversation not just about broadband, but our full portfolio of products, and we are seeing -- it's still early days, but we're still seeing really strong uptick of these products like mobile, like the value-added services, like the video tiers even and having great conversations. And so we're excited about the early results, and we're going to continue to lean in into convergence and multiproduct sell-in. And honestly, this is a great conversation we're having with our base as well, and we're able to now reach out to our base. Unfortunately, it's in a very manual fashion today. We do need to, as I mentioned, really get with the times and launch our MarTech platform that will allow us to do this in a much more efficient, automated, scalable fashion. But every time we have an interaction with our customers now, we're talking about getting them into our new packages, getting them into converged packages. And so our care and retention channels are actually some of our best-selling channels for mobile. And we're still in the early innings, but they performed at their best in Q2, and they still have a long way to go. And so every time we have an interaction with our existing customers in retail, retail's mobile yield is the highest it's ever been, and it's only going to get better as we introduce wearables, as we introduce a broader product portfolio with our evolution of our T-Mobile deal. And so we're super excited about the fact that we can have a new conversation with the base that we just never could before. Historically, it was just once a year, give them a rate event and aggravate them and tick them off. Now we can have a much more interesting conversation about, hey, let's get you the right products, let's get you the right services, the best value. We have the best value, bar none for broadband and mobile, stop, period, done. We have the best value. And so we're going to lean into that at acquisition and in the base, drive convergence, drive our multiproduct sell-in and get customers, existing customers as well into just very robust valuable packages, much more value than what they have today, and that's the journey that we're on. On the HFC plant, we're excited about the multiyear network strategy that we've put in place. It's still early days. I'm optimistic over the next 6 to 12 months as we really scale that up and really bring alongside the network investments, a holistic go-to-market strategy in these areas like West Virginia that our ability to compete is going to elevate significantly. We've been really operating with one hand tied behind our back in terms of being able to go to market and message and really put our best foot forward. With these investments that we have planned, it will take up our ability to compete, and we'll absolutely keep you posted. That's something that I'm laser-focused on. As we make these investments, we have to see a return. We have to see improved performance, both in terms of gross adds and churn, and that's something that we'll be reporting back on in future calls. Craig Moffett: And if I could squeeze in one more. I haven't heard the obligatory Starlink question yet in the Western market. So I was wondering just what impact you're seeing from Starlink? Dennis Mathew: Of course. Yes, of course, nominal impact in Q2, but we're keeping a close eye. Obviously, they're expanding their availability, particularly in the rural markets. They're getting more aggressive with their pricing. And so it's up to us to compete at the highest level. Since I started in this industry and even today, the customers want two things. They want great value and they want great quality. And so it's up to us to show up, whether it's Starlink, whether it's fixed wireless, whether it's a fiber overbuilder, whether it's a telco, to provide great value and great quality, great quality network, great quality product, great quality service. And so I'm confident in our ability to compete. Nominal impact in Q2, but I know that they are ramping up, and we're going to keep a close eye and make sure that we are evolving our go-to-market strategy to compete at the highest level, no matter the competitor. Operator: Our next question will be from Michael Rollins with Citi. Michael Rollins: Two follow-ups, if I could. So first, you're describing the success you have with customer engagement. I'm curious, for the churn that you experience, let's say, for every 100 customers that churn from your platform, what percent of those give you the proactive opportunity to retain them. So they call in, they express their concern or what they're thinking about and gives you that opportunity to hold on to them? And then secondly, you've been competing with fiber on average, probably longer and broader than most of the cable companies. And curious, as you look at markets at the micro level, are you seeing a certain number of those markets where the performance is fundamentally different or better just because they've gotten to a maturity point with competition, that maybe the whole portfolio hasn't gotten to yet. And so it gives you some insight into the light at the end of the tunnel and maybe the percent of those homes passed just to think about how many have crossed that threshold for you of being in fundamentally a different place. Dennis Mathew: Yes. Thank you, Michael. I'll take that last question first, actually. That's exactly what we're seeing. As I mentioned earlier, as we implemented our new pricing and packaging strategy, we are seeing stabilization and meaningfully improved performance in large parts of our footprint, particularly where we have been competing head-to-head with certain fiber providers for years and, in some cases, decades. And we are really understanding the levers that are required to be able to stabilize and then ultimately get back to growth. And so we're going to continue to lean in there. There's work that we need to do to continue to accelerate our go-to-market strategies, leveraging our MarTech solutions, leveraging continued improvements in our marketing effectiveness and efficiency. But we are confident that we've got the right pricing, the right packaging, the right portfolio. But then as you get into a bit more granular, particularly where we have new fiber entrants, there's work that we need to do with our base to be able to make sure that we are able to compete at the highest level as these new providers, whether it's fiber, whether it's fixed wireless, whether it's Starlink, whoever that is coming in with very aggressive offers, really just trying to dislodge our customers. And that goes back to your earlier question in terms of, okay, well, how do we stabilize? Yes, we have some percentage of customers where we're able to have a conversation, rightsize them and get them into the right packages. But more and more, we have customers that have already made up their mind. And so we have to get much earlier into the customer life cycle, and that's where this MarTech capability and base management capabilities are so important. And right now, it's all manual. And we are laser-focused over the next couple of quarters implementing automation, implementing AI, so that we can get up much earlier into the process. We have churn propensity models now that are more robust than ever to help us identify who these customers are. We know that when they call us x number of times into care, they have x number of service visits. They've gone on to our website to check their bill a couple of times. We now have -- we're starting to have the indicators that will allow us to take proactive steps to get them much earlier before they call, because there is a growing percentage of folks that call. They've already made up their decision in their mind. They have options. They've had alternatives. They've been with us for a long time. We haven't had an opportunity to engage them in a productive fashion, but we will. We are on that path. We will absolutely be doing that, and that will change our ability to engage with our customers in a much more effective fashion and allow us to drive reduction in call volumes into retention and allow us to stabilize broadband and ultimately get back to broadband growth. And so those are all initiatives that we are prioritizing for the next couple of quarters, so that we can actually engage with our customers in an even more effective and efficient manner digitally, leveraging My Optimum app, leveraging our online portals, messaging our customers on a regular basis in a productive, constructive fashion, so that we can mitigate any risks or issues that they're experiencing and ensure that we have the right engagement, right relationship with our customers. Operator: Well, this concludes our Q&A session, I will now turn the call back to management for closing remarks. Sarah Freedman: Thank you all for joining. Please reach out to Investor Relations or Media Relations with any additional questions. Dennis Mathew: Thank you. Operator: The call has concluded. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect. Before you buy stock in Optimum Communications, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Optimum Communications wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. 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As with all our articles, The Motley Fool does not assume any responsibility for your use of this content, and we strongly encourage you to do your own research, including listening to the call yourself and reading the company's SEC filings. Please see our Terms and Conditions for additional details, including our Obligatory Capitalized Disclaimers of Liability. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Optimum Communications (OPTU) Q2 2026 Earnings Call Transcript was originally published by The Motley Fool

Optimum Communications, Inc. OPTU reported a weaker-than-expected second quarter as declining revenue and subscriber pressure weighed on results. At the same time, the company expanded its gross and Adjusted EBITDA margins and reduced operating expenses. The mixed performance puts greater focus on whether Optimum can sustain cost discipline while addressing pressure in its core broadband business. Optimum reported a net loss attributable to stockholders of 67 cents per share on a diluted basis in the second quarter compared with a loss of 21 cents per share in the year-ago quarter. Total revenues declined 5.8% year over year to $2.02 billion.The revenue decline reflects continued pressure in the residential business. Residential revenues fell 6.7% year over year to $1.54 billion, while residential ARPU declined 1.1% to $132.22.The reported loss per share differs from the 19-cent figure in the supplied concept. The available company earnings release does not support that figure, so the reported 67-cent loss is used here. Optimum Communications, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Optimum Communications, Inc. Quote Broadband primary service units declined by 40,000 in the second quarter compared with a 35,000 loss in the year-ago quarter. The company said the second-quarter broadband loss benefited from a bulk agreement, making the subscriber trend an important area to monitor as Optimum works to improve its go-to-market strategy.Residential ARPU also remained under pressure. While convergence ARPU increased 2.4% year over year to $79.80, the improvement was not enough to offset the broader decline in residential revenue.The combination of subscriber losses and lower residential ARPU leaves Optimum dependent on improving customer retention, expanding convergence and growing newer offerings to stabilize its top line. Optimum’s profitability trends were better than its revenue performance. Adjusted EBITDA declined 2.2% year over year to $785.7 million, but the Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 140 basis points to 38.8%. Gross margin also increased 180 basis points to 71%.Cost reductions supported the improvement. Operating expenses excluding share-based compensation declined 5% year to date, aided by lower truck rolls and call volumes, lower sales acquisition costs and workforce optimization.The margin expansion provides an important offset to the revenue decline, but it also highlights the challenge facing management: continued cost reductions must coexist with investments needed to improve the customer experience and strengthen broadband performance. Optimum continues to invest heavily despite the pressure on revenue and EBITDA. Management expects Adjusted EBITDA to decline in the low to mid-single digits in 2026, while capital expenditures are expected to range from $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion.Second-quarter cash capital expenditures totaled $320 million, down 16.6% year over year. Free cash flow was negative $91.9 million, compared with positive free cash flow of $28.4 million in the year-ago quarter.The spending plan leaves little room for a rapid improvement in free cash flow if revenue remains under pressure. Compared with peers such as Comcast Corp. CMCSA and Charter Communications, Inc. CHTR, Optimum faces the added challenge of balancing network investment with its weaker revenue trends and financial flexibility. Management therefore needs to sustain investment while improving operating performance and cash generation. OPTU currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Its Value Score of B contrasts with a Growth Score of D and a Momentum Score of D. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.The Zacks Style Scores are designed to complement the Zacks Rank by evaluating value, growth and momentum characteristics. The Style Score framework ranks each category from A to F, with higher grades representing more favorable characteristics.For OPTU, the B Value Score indicates comparatively better valuation characteristics, while the D Growth Score and D Momentum Score point to weaker operating and price trends. The combination fits the mixed nature of the second-quarter results: margin expansion and cost discipline provide support, but declining revenue and broadband losses remain unresolved. Optimum’s second-quarter results show progress on efficiency but continued pressure on the underlying business. Revenue declined 5.8%, broadband losses reached 40,000 and Adjusted EBITDA fell 2.2%. At the same time, the company expanded its Adjusted EBITDA margin to 38.8% and reduced operating expenses.The balance between those trends will determine whether the company can deliver on its 2026 strategy. With the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and mixed Style Scores, the current setup does not provide a clear signal in either direction. Investors will likely focus on broadband stabilization, revenue trends and free cash flow as the year progresses. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Optimum Communications, Inc. (OPTU) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Total Revenue: Approximately $2 billion, down 5.8% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA: $786 million, down 2.2% year-over-year, with margin expanding 140 basis points to 38.8%. Gross Margin: All-time high of 71%, up 180 basis points year-over-year. Broadband Subscribers: Net losses of 40,000 in Q2, ending with approximately 4 million subscribers. Mobile Lines: Added 50,000 net lines, ending with 724,000 lines, up approximately 33% year-over-year. Video Subscribers: Net losses of 46,000, marking the best quarterly performance in six years. Fiber Customers: Added 20,000 customers, bringing total to 749,000, up over 13% year-over-year. Residential ARPU: Declined 1.1% year-over-year, or $1.46, driven by product mix shift away from video. Convergence ARPU: Grew 2.4% year-over-year to $79.80. Business Services Revenue: $366 million, up 1.2% year-over-year, driven by Lightpath revenue growth of 7%. Capital Expenditures: $320 million in Q2, representing approximately 16% capital intensity, down almost 17% year-over-year. Operating Expenses: Excluding share-based compensation, down over 4% year-over-year in Q2. Programming and Direct Costs: Declined over 11% year-over-year, with programming costs down over 14%. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 8 Warning Signs with OPTU. Is OPTU fairly valued? Test your thesis with our free DCF calculator. Release Date: August 06, 2026 For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript. Optimum Communications Inc (NYSE:OPTU) improved broadband subscriber net losses sequentially to 40,000, showing progress in a challenging competitive environment. The company added 50,000 mobile lines in Q2, marking its best second quarter mobile performance and growing mobile lines by 33% year-over-year. Gross margin reached an all-time high of 71%, expanding 180 basis points year-over-year, driven by product mix and disciplined cost management. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 140 basis points to 38.8%, reflecting strong cost control and operational efficiencies. The company successfully completed a $300 million tender offer, repurchasing 120 million shares and enhancing financial flexibility. Total revenue declined 5.8% year-over-year, with residential video and news/advertising accounting for 75% of the decline. Broadband subscriber losses remain elevated at 40,000 in Q2, driven by intense competition from fiber overbuilders and fixed wireless providers. The company faces significant balance sheet challenges, with leverage at 8 times annualized adjusted EBITDA and a need for a 'meaningful debt reduction' and balance sheet reset. Residential ARPU declined 1.1% year-over-year, and the company expects tougher ARPU comparisons in the second half of 2026. The company is exiting low-density markets and winding down operations of New York Interconnect, which may reduce its footprint and advertising revenue. Q: Can you provide more details on the footprint decommissioning, the impact of the bulk agreement on subscriber numbers and ARPU, and the rationale behind the tender offer share structure?A: Dennis Mathew (CEO) confirmed the decommissioning involves 48,000 passings with nominal penetration, part of a strategy to focus on core markets. On the bulk agreement, he noted it's a key opportunity in the MDU segment, converting non-exclusive retail agreements to bulk contracts, which have different ARPU but better long-term value. Marc Sirota (CFO) declined to comment on the tender offer details beyond what was published in June, noting shares are held in treasury. Q: Can you elaborate on the impact of the five-year price lock offers and the differences in performance between upgraded HFC and FTTH markets?A: Dennis Mathew (CEO) explained the price lock offers simplify go-to-market, drive top-of-funnel traffic, and allow for solution selling, with nearly 60% of new customers taking gig or multi-gig services. He noted the HFC network upgrades are early days but will elevate competitiveness over the next 6-12 months, particularly in markets like West Virginia, with a focus on seeing returns from these investments. Q: What percentage of churning customers provide a proactive opportunity to retain them, and are there markets where competition has matured to a point of fundamentally better performance?A: Dennis Mathew (CEO) acknowledged that while some customers can be retained through conversations, a growing percentage have already decided to leave. He emphasized the need for earlier engagement through MarTech and AI capabilities, which are being implemented over the next few quarters. He confirmed that markets with long-standing fiber competition are showing stabilization and improved performance, providing a blueprint for the rest of the footprint. Q: Can you discuss the impact of Starlink on the Western markets?A: Dennis Mathew (CEO) stated Starlink had a nominal impact in Q2 but noted they are expanding availability and becoming more aggressive with pricing. He emphasized the importance of competing on value and quality, and the company is closely monitoring Starlink's ramp-up to adjust go-to-market strategies accordingly. Q: How are you thinking about broadband subscriber losses for the full year, and can you improve upon last year's performance?A: Dennis Mathew (CEO) expressed optimism about initiatives to stabilize broadband, including simplified offers, improved sales channel productivity, and enhanced customer experience tools like Google CES. He acknowledged the journey will take a couple of quarters but is confident in the path back to growth, with a focus on both acquisition and churn reduction. Q: Can you provide more color on broadband ARPU trends for the rest of the year?A: Dennis Mathew (CEO) highlighted the focus on convergence ARPU, with new pricing driving gig and multi-gig adoption and mobile attachment at point of sale. Marc Sirota (CFO) added that all product line ARPUs grew in the quarter, but full-year ARPU is expected to decline due to tough comparisons in Q4, while maintaining a disciplined approach to rate and volume management. Q: Can you explain the long-term broadband penetration forecast of 26% for the West footprint?A: Dennis Mathew (CEO) described the plan as aggressive but achievable, acknowledging increased competition with over 50% fiber overbuild and 80% fixed wireless coverage. He noted a surgical approach to target markets with significant share losses, while being realistic that fiber overbuild will likely grow to levels similar to the East, balancing growth with fiscal responsibility. Q: Can you provide details on the bulk agreement, specifically whether the 9,000 broadband connects are net new and the ARPU implications?A: Dennis Mathew (CEO) confirmed the bulk agreement represents a conversion from retail to bulk, with 9,000 broadband and 8,000 video connects. He noted bulk ARPUs differ from retail but offer better long-term value, and this is part of a broader strategy to convert MDU relationships over the next 18-24 months. Q: Can you discuss the impact of the tender offer on share count and why shares weren't canceled?A: Marc Sirota (CFO) declined to comment beyond the June announcement, noting the shares purchased by CSC Investments II are held in treasury. He did not provide further technical details on the share count reduction. Q: Can you elaborate on the success of customer engagement initiatives and how they impact churn?A: Dennis Mathew (CEO) highlighted improvements in sales channel productivity and customer experience, with care and retention channels performing at their best in Q2. He emphasized the importance of proactive engagement through churn propensity models and upcoming MarTech capabilities to identify at-risk customers earlier and reduce churn. For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.

Interested in Optimum Communications, Inc.? Here are five stocks we like better. Mobile growth partly offset broadband weakness: Optimum added approximately 50,000 mobile lines, bringing the total to 724,000, while broadband net losses improved sequentially to 40,000. Video losses also improved to 46,000, the company’s best quarterly result in six years. Margins expanded despite declining revenue: Second-quarter revenue fell 5.8% year over year to about $2 billion, but gross margin reached a record 71% and adjusted EBITDA margin increased to 38.8% as programming and operating costs declined. Debt reduction remains critical: Optimum repurchased $300 million of shares and has no remaining 2026 debt maturities, but leverage remains high at 8 times annualized adjusted EBITDA. Management is pursuing a comprehensive restructuring of CSC Holdings debt while continuing fiber and multi-gig network investments. 3 Large Cap Laggards Poised to Rally Optimum Communications (NYSE:OPTU) reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of approximately $2 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $786 million, as the company continued to manage broadband subscriber losses while expanding mobile lines, improving margins and reducing operating expenses. Broadband net losses improved sequentially to 40,000 in the quarter, while the company added roughly 50,000 mobile lines. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dennis Mathew said Optimum is pursuing a strategy focused on simpler offers, improved customer experience, operational efficiency, network investment and a balance-sheet reset. → Sandisk Just Delivered a Blowout Quarter—Here's Why the Stock Is Falling “Broadband continues to face pressure. The competitive environment remains intense,” Mathew said. “But our focus is on the areas we can control and execute against every day.” Optimum ended the quarter with approximately 4 million broadband subscribers. While gross broadband additions were broadly stable year over year, the company said churn remained elevated, primarily because of heightened promotional activity from competitors. → 4 Oil and Gas ETF Plays as Prices Stay Sky-High The company’s multi-dwelling-unit footprint represents about 20% of its total footprint, according to Chief Financial Officer Marc Sirota. Optimum reported an additional 9,000 broadband connects and 8,000 video connects in the quarter from a bulk relationship portfolio conversion. Mathew said the company has been working to shift MDU agreements from non-exclusive retail arrangements toward longer-term bulk contracts with property owners. Mobile results were a relative bright spot. Optimum added 50,000 net mobile lines, its best second-quarter performance to date, and ended the period with 724,000 lines, up approximately 33% from a year earlier. Mobile and broadband convergence penetration reached about 9% at quarter-end. → No Hangover: Revisiting Microsoft One Week After Earnings The company also expanded its multiyear agreement with T-Mobile to access its standalone 5G network. Mathew said the arrangement is intended to provide faster service, a broader device lineup including wearables, and improved roaming and rural connectivity. Broadband net losses: 40,000 Mobile net additions: approximately 50,000 Ending mobile lines: 724,000 Video net losses: 46,000 Fiber customer additions: 20,000 Ending fiber customers: 749,000 Video subscriber net losses were 46,000, a result Sirota described as the company’s best quarterly video subscriber performance in six years. Newer E-tier video packages represented approximately 18% of the residential video base, compared with 10% a year earlier. Management said customers taking those packages have shown lower churn than customers on legacy offerings. Total revenue declined 5.8% year over year. Excluding the divestiture of an advertising agency services business, revenue would have declined 5.1%. The divested business generated about $100 million of revenue in full-year 2025 and had an immaterial impact on adjusted EBITDA, management said. Residential video and video-related news and advertising businesses accounted for $92 million, or about 75%, of the year-over-year revenue decline. Residential connectivity and other revenue, including broadband, mobile, telephony and other revenue, declined 3.6%, reflecting broadband subscriber pressure partly offset by mobile growth. Business services revenue rose 1.2% to $366 million, aided by 7% growth at Lightpath. The company said it expects full-year revenue to decline by a mid-single-digit percentage excluding the advertising divestiture. Despite the revenue decline, Optimum’s gross margin reached an all-time high of 71%, up 180 basis points year over year. Adjusted EBITDA fell 2.2%, while adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 140 basis points to 38.8%. Programming and direct costs declined more than 11%, including a decline of more than 14% in programming costs. Other operating expense, excluding share-based compensation, declined more than 4% year over year in the quarter. Mathew said total truck rolls and service calls declined by more than 20% from a year earlier, while sales acquisition costs fell approximately 10%. The company attributed efficiencies to fewer service visits and calls, network reliability improvements, digital self-service, workforce optimization, and greater use of data, automation and artificial intelligence. Optimum is rolling out Google’s Customer Engagement Suite, which includes agent assistance and AI virtual agents powered by Google Gemini. Capital expenditures were $320 million in the second quarter, down nearly 17% year over year and representing approximately 16% capital intensity. Optimum expects full-year capital spending of $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion, with spending weighted toward the second half. The company ended the quarter with about 10.1 million total passings and 3.2 million fiber passings. It expects to add 150,000 to 175,000 passings during 2026, excluding decommissioned passings that are expected to slightly reduce total passings in the third quarter. Management said it exited a small number of low-density, non-core markets in its West footprint, representing 48,000 passings with nominal penetration. Customers are expected to transition to other providers during the third quarter. Optimum plans to upgrade a majority of its network to multi-gig capabilities over coming years. Its fiber network currently provides speeds of up to 8 gigabits per second symmetrically, while selected HFC communities in West Virginia offer download speeds of up to 2 Gbps. Optimum said it has no remaining debt maturities in 2026, with its next significant maturities beginning in 2027. The company reported a weighted average debt cost of 6.8%, a weighted average debt life of 2.8 years, and approximately 81% fixed-rate debt. During the quarter, the company completed its previously announced tender offer, repurchasing 120 million Class A shares at $2.50 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $300 million. Following the transaction, Optimum had approximately 273 million shares outstanding and 206 million shares held in treasury. Leverage stood at 8 times the last two quarters’ annualized adjusted EBITDA. Sirota said management continues to pursue a consensual comprehensive restructuring of CSC Holdings debt through negotiations with lenders, describing debt reduction and a balance-sheet reset as essential to the company’s transformation and long-term investment plans. Altice USA, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, provides broadband communications and video services in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. It offers broadband, video, telephony, and mobile services to approximately five million residential and business customers. The company's video services include delivery of broadcast stations and cable networks; over the top services; video-on-demand, high-definition channels, digital video recorder, and pay-per-view services; and platforms for video programming through mobile applications. This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected]. The article "Optimum Communications Q2 Earnings Call Highlights" was originally published by MarketBeat. View MarketBeat's top stocks for August 2026.

Optimum Communications, Inc. OPTU reported a second-quarter 2026 loss per share of 19 cents, wider than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 17 cents, resulting in an earnings miss of 11.8%. Revenues totaled $2.02 billion, down 5.8% year over year and 0.1% below the $2.03 billion consensus estimate.Results reflected continued broadband and video pressure, partly offset by mobile growth and stronger margins. Broadband net losses improved sequentially to 40,000, while mobile added 50,000 lines. Convergence ARPU increased 2.4% year over year to $79.80, highlighting progress in customer bundling. Optimum Communications, Inc. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Optimum Communications, Inc. Quote Residential revenues declined 6.7% year over year to $1.54 billion, with broadband and video remaining key sources of pressure. Residential ARPU fell 1.1% to $132.22, primarily due to the shift away from video, although non-video ARPU growth of $1.57, mainly tied to convergence, provided an offset.Broadband net losses totaled 40,000 compared with 35,000 in the year-ago quarter, while total broadband subscribers ended at 4 million. Optimum continued simplifying pricing and packaging, strengthening customer retention efforts and using data-driven base management. The share of residential broadband customers taking 1 Gig or higher speeds rose to 53% from 38% a year earlier. Mobile remained a bright spot. The company added 50,000 lines in the quarter, its strongest second-quarter performance, bringing total mobile lines to 724,000. Residential mobile service revenue rose 40% year over year to $53 million, while mobile penetration of the broadband base increased to 8.9% from 6.9%.Video trends also improved. Newer tiered offerings, including Entertainment TV, Extra TV and Everything TV, reached 18% penetration of the residential video base, up from 10% a year earlier. Residential video ARPU increased 1.4%, while migration to the newer packages continued to support retention and video profitability. Total revenues were $2.02 billion, with residential revenues falling to $1.54 billion. Business services and wholesale revenue increased 1.2% to $366 million, driven by 7% growth at Lightpath. News and Advertising revenue declined 15.8% to $100 million. Management said residential video and video-related news and advertising accounted for $92 million, or roughly 75%, of the year-over-year revenue decline.Cost discipline helped cushion the revenue decline. Gross margin expanded 180 basis points to 71%, while Adjusted EBITDA fell 2.2% to $785.7 million. Adjusted EBITDA margin increased 140 basis points to 38.8%. Programming and direct costs declined more than 11%, while operating expenses excluding share-based compensation fell more than 4% in the quarter. Optimum added 68,000 new passings during the quarter and 223,000 during the last 12 months. Approximately 97% of its total footprint supported 1 Gig or higher speeds at quarter-end. The company also continued investing in fiber and network modernization, while Lightpath reported strong demand for AI-grade infrastructure.The company is also simplifying its operations. Optimum completed the divestiture of an advertising agency services business in the second quarter and plans to wind down New York Interconnect operations in the coming months. Management said these actions are intended to simplify the business and focus resources on higher-priority growth opportunities. Net cash provided by operating activities declined 44.6% year over year to $228.1 million. Cash capital expenditures fell 16.6% to $320 million, but Free Cash Flow swung to a deficit of $91.9 million from positive Free Cash Flow of $28.4 million in the year-ago quarter. For the first six months, Free Cash Flow was a deficit of $229.3 million versus a deficit of $140.2 million a year earlier.Optimum's consolidated net debt was $25.33 billion as of June 30, 2026, representing net leverage of 8.0X. The weighted average cost of debt was 6.8%, while the weighted average life was 2.8 years. In July, CSC II completed a tender offer for 120 million Class A shares at $2.5 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $300 million. Management expects total revenues to decline in the mid-single digits for full-year 2026, excluding the News and Advertising divestiture. The company expects subscriber volumes to continue affecting its top-line performance and anticipates tougher ARPU comparisons in the second half, particularly in the fourth quarter.Optimum also expects full-year Adjusted EBITDA to decline in the low to mid-single digits as revenue pressure is partly offset by continued cost discipline. Full-year capital expenditures are expected to range between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion, with higher spending anticipated in the second half of 2026. Optimum currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Keysight Technologies, Inc. KEYS is scheduled to release third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on Aug. 18. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $2.46 per share, suggesting growth of 43.02% from the year-ago reported figure.Keysight has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 19.44%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 9.46% in the last four reported quarters.Analog Devices, Inc. ADI is set to release third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on Aug. 19. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $3.33 per share, implying growth of 62.44% from the year-ago reported figure.Analog Devices has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 31.04%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 5.48% in the last four reported quarters.Applied Materials, Inc. AMAT is scheduled to release third-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on Aug. 13. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings is pegged at $3.36 per share, suggesting growth of 35.48% from the year-ago reported figure.Applied Materials has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 32.44%. The company delivered an average earnings surprise of 6.06% in the last four reported quarters. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Optimum Communications, Inc. (OPTU) : Free Stock Analysis Report Analog Devices, Inc. (ADI) : Free Stock Analysis Report Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) : Free Stock Analysis Report Keysight Technologies Inc. (KEYS) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

Our analysts just identified a stock with the potential to be the next Nvidia. Tell us how you invest and we'll show you why it's our #1 pick. Tap here. Performance was driven by disciplined cost management and a simplified go-to-market strategy, resulting in expanded gross and adjusted EBITDA margins despite revenue pressure. Management attributed broadband subscriber losses to intense competitive pressure, particularly from fiber overbuilders and fixed wireless providers in the West footprint. The company is pivoting toward a convergence-led strategy, leveraging a new multiyear agreement with T-Mobile to expand its mobile addressable market into wearables and connected devices. Operational efficiency improved significantly through the deployment of AI-powered tools like Google CES and Gemini, which contributed to a 20% year-over-year decline in truck rolls and service calls. Strategic portfolio simplification included the divestiture of a noncore advertising agency and the planned exit from low-density markets and the New York Interconnect joint venture. Management emphasized that the ongoing business transformation requires a meaningful reset of the balance sheet to support long-term growth initiatives. Full-year 2026 revenue is expected to decline mid-single digits, while adjusted EBITDA is projected to decline low-to-mid single digits, reflecting continued subscriber volume pressure. Capital expenditure is targeted between $1.2 billion and $1.5 billion for 2026, with higher spending anticipated in the second half to support fiber expansion and HFC network modernization. The company is pursuing a consensual comprehensive restructuring of CSC Holdings debt to address upcoming 2027 maturities and enhance financial flexibility. Management expects convergence ARPU to become a primary metric for evaluating customer value as mobile penetration and multi-product bundling increase. Future operational improvements depend on the rollout of a new MarTech platform and automated billing solutions to transition from manual to data-driven customer base management. Completed a $300 million tender offer, repurchasing 120 million Class A shares to strengthen the capital structure. Divested an advertising agency business that generated approximately $100 million in 2025 revenue but had an immaterial impact on EBITDA. Identified a 48,000-passing decommissioning of noncore rural markets in the West footprint scheduled for the third quarter. Noted that while broadband ARPU remained stable in the first half, tougher year-over-year comparisons are expected in the fourth quarter due to the timing of prior rate actions. One stock. Nvidia-level potential. 30M+ investors trust Moby to find it first. Get the pick. Tap here. Management explained that the 48,000 passings being exited had nominal penetration and were challenging to service relative to the core footprint. The exit allows the company to prioritize resources and operational execution in geographies where they can drive maximum growth and impact. A recent conversion of an MDU portfolio from retail to bulk added 9,000 broadband and 8,000 video connects in Q2. While bulk ARPUs are lower than retail, management views these long-term exclusive contracts as essential for protecting the 20% of their footprint located in MDUs. The simplified pricing strategy is driving higher top-of-funnel activity, with approximately 60% of new customers opting for 1 gig or higher speeds. Management noted that these offers serve as an entry point for solution-selling, leading to record mobile yield in retail and care channels. Management admitted that current base management is largely manual, often reaching customers only after they have decided to leave. The upcoming MarTech platform and AI-driven churn propensity models are designed to enable proactive engagement earlier in the customer lifecycle.

Optimum Communications, Inc. (OPTU) reported $2.02 billion in revenue for the quarter ended June 2026, representing a year-over-year decline of 5.8%. EPS of -$0.19 for the same period compares to -$0.21 a year ago. The reported revenue represents a surprise of -0.06% over the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.03 billion. With the consensus EPS estimate being -$0.17, the EPS surprise was -11.77%. While investors scrutinize revenue and earnings changes year-over-year and how they compare with Wall Street expectations to determine their next move, some key metrics always offer a more accurate picture of a company's financial health. Since these metrics play a crucial role in driving the top- and bottom-line numbers, comparing them with the year-ago numbers and what analysts estimated about them helps investors better project a stock's price performance. Here is how Optimum Communications, Inc. performed in the just reported quarter in terms of the metrics most widely monitored and projected by Wall Street analysts: Customer Relationships - Residential Unique Customer Relationships: 3.86 million versus the two-analyst average estimate of 3.87 million. Customer Relationships - SMB Unique Customer Relationships: 362.5 thousand versus the two-analyst average estimate of 367.72 thousand. Total Residential Customers/ Residential PSUs - Pay TV / Video Subscribers: 1.53 million versus 1.52 million estimated by two analysts on average. Total Residential Customers/ Residential PSUs - Broadband Subscribers: 3.71 million compared to the 3.73 million average estimate based on two analysts. Revenue- Residential revenue- Video: $587.83 million versus the three-analyst average estimate of $589.97 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of -11%. Revenue- Residential revenue- Broadband: $840.92 million versus the three-analyst average estimate of $837.22 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of -5%. Revenue- Residential revenue- Telephony: $56.3 million versus $56.05 million estimated by three analysts on average. Compared to the year-ago quarter, this number represents a -12.9% change. Revenue- Residential revenue: $1.54 billion compared to the $1.53 billion average estimate based on three analysts. The reported number represents a change of -6.7% year over year. Revenue- News and Advertising: $99.98 million versus the three-analyst average estimate of $113 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of -15.8%. Revenue- Other: $19.84 million compared to the $15.67 million average estimate based on three analysts. The reported number represents a change of +6% year over year. Revenue- Residential revenue- Mobile: $52.55 million versus the three-analyst average estimate of $51.43 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +39.7%. Revenue- Business services and wholesale: $366.29 million versus the three-analyst average estimate of $361.67 million. The reported number represents a year-over-year change of +1.2%. View all Key Company Metrics for Optimum Communications, Inc. here>>> Shares of Optimum Communications, Inc. have returned -41.9% over the past month versus the Zacks S&P 500 composite's +3.3% change. The stock currently has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), indicating that it could outperform the broader market in the near term. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Optimum Communications, Inc. (OPTU) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research

NEW YORK, August 06, 2026--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Optimum Communications, Inc. (NYSE: OPTU) today reports results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2026. Dennis Mathew, Optimum Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said: "Our second quarter results reflect disciplined execution across every part of our business. We expanded gross margin and Adjusted EBITDA margin, drove sequential improvement in broadband trends, delivered our best second-quarter mobile line growth to date, grew convergence ARPU year over year, and continued to expand our footprint, all while reducing operating expenses and simplifying how we operate. We are sharpening our go-to-market approach, deepening customer relationships through convergence, and transforming the customer experience to support stronger broadband performance over time. At the same time, we continue to take deliberate steps to strengthen our financial foundation, which remains a top priority as we position the business for long-term success. We remain focused on executing every day, investing where we see the strongest returns, and delivering best-in-class connectivity to the communities we serve." Second Quarter 2026 Overview Total revenue of $2.02 billion in Q2 2026 (-5.8% year over year) Residential revenue of $1.54 billion in Q2 2026 (-6.7% year over year) Net loss attributable to stockholders of ($291.8) million (($0.67)/share on a diluted basis) in Q2 2026, compared to ($96.3) million (($0.21)/share on a diluted basis) in Q2 2025. Net loss margin attributable to stockholders of -14.4% in Q2 2026 Net cash flows from operating activities of $228.1 million (-44.6% year over year) in Q2 2026 Adjusted EBITDA(3) of $785.7 million (-2.2% year over year), margin of 38.8% in Q2 2026 Cash capital expenditures of $320.0 million (-16.6% year over year), capital intensity(4) of 15.8% in Q2 2026 Free Cash Flow (deficit)(3) of ($91.9) million in Q2 2026 compared to $28.4 million in Q2 2025 Second Quarter 2026 Key Operational Highlights Driving Operational Improvements and Margin Expansion Strengthening Broadband Strategy Amid Competitive Market; Net Losses of 40k Growing Through Mobile; Best Second Quarter Mobile Line Net Add Performance, with +50k Line Net Additions in Q2 2026 Improving Video Margin and Customer Retention with New Tiered Offerings Expanding and Enhancing Our Networks Balance Sheet Review as of June 30, 2026 Consolidated net debt(7) for Optimum Communications was $25,333 million, representing consolidated net leverage of 8.0x L2QA(8) Net debt(7) for CSC Holdings, LLC Restricted Group was $21,775 million, representing net leverage of 22.8x L2QA(8) Consolidated net debt(7) for Cablevision Litchfield, LLC and CSC Optimum Holdings, LLC (the "UnSub Group") was $2,317 million, representing consolidated net leverage of 1.2x L2QA(8) Consolidated net debt(7) for Lightpath was $1,570 million, representing net leverage of 5.5x L2QA(8) Shares Outstanding As of June 30, 2026, Optimum Communications had 392,560,390 combined shares of Class A and Class B common stock outstanding. Private Placement of Preferred Units On May 29, 2026, CSC Investments II LLC ("CSC II"), an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Optimum Communications, Inc. completed a private placement of newly issued Series A Preferred Units to certain institutional accredited investors for an aggregate purchase price of $300 million.The proceeds from the private placement were used for general corporate purposes, including financing a tender offer and paying related transaction expenses. The Preferred Units are perpetual preferred interests in CSC II, with quarterly dividends payable in cash or by compounding, at CSC II’s option. Dividends accrue at 13.0% per year if paid in cash or 15.0% per year if compounded, and the rate may increase by 2.0% per year during certain triggering events. The Preferred Units may be redeemed by CSC II at any time, subject to the applicable redemption price, and are subject to mandatory redemption upon certain events involving CSC II and its subsidiaries. Private Exchange Transaction In a private exchange transaction completed on May 29, 2026, CSC II issued additional Preferred Units with an aggregate initial stated value of $212.5 million to Next Partner, L.P. and certain members of Optimum’s board of directors and executive management in exchange for shares of Optimum Class A and Class B common stock. Such exchanged common shares were not canceled. Cash Tender Offer In July 2026, CSC II completed its tender offer to purchase shares of Class A common stock of Optimum Communications, Inc. from unaffiliated stockholders at a purchase price of $2.50 per share. In accordance with the terms and conditions of the tender offer, CSC II accepted for purchase 120 million shares for an aggregate purchase price of $300 million, excluding fees and expenses related to the tender offer. Such purchased common shares were not canceled. Reconciliation of Non-GAAP Financial Measures We define Adjusted EBITDA, which is a non-GAAP financial measure, as net income (loss) excluding income taxes, non-operating income or expenses, gain (loss) on extinguishment of debt and write-off of deferred financing costs, gain (loss) on interest rate swap contracts, gain (loss) on derivative contracts, gain (loss) on investments and sale of affiliate interests, interest expense, net, depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation, restructuring, impairments and other operating items (such as significant legal settlements and contractual payments for terminated employees). We define Adjusted EBITDA margin as Adjusted EBITDA divided by total revenue. Adjusted EBITDA eliminates the significant non-cash depreciation and amortization expense that results from the capital-intensive nature of our business and from intangible assets recognized from acquisitions, as well as certain non-cash and other operating items that affect the period-to-period comparability of our operating performance. In addition, Adjusted EBITDA is unaffected by our capital and tax structures and by our investment activities. We believe Adjusted EBITDA is an appropriate measure for evaluating our operating performance. Adjusted EBITDA and similar measures with similar titles are common performance measures used by investors, analysts and peers to compare performance in our industry. Internally, we use revenue and Adjusted EBITDA measures as important indicators of our business performance and evaluate management’s effectiveness with specific reference to these indicators. We believe Adjusted EBITDA provides management and investors a useful measure for period-to-period comparisons of our core business and operating results by excluding items that are not comparable across reporting periods or that do not otherwise relate to our ongoing operating results. Adjusted EBITDA should be viewed as a supplement to and not a substitute for operating income (loss), net income (loss), and other measures of performance presented in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). Since Adjusted EBITDA is not a measure of performance calculated in accordance with GAAP, this measure may not be comparable to similar measures with similar titles used by other companies. We also use Free Cash Flow (defined as net cash flows from operating activities less cash capital expenditures) as a liquidity measure. We believe this measure is useful to investors in evaluating our ability to service our debt and make continuing investments with internally generated funds, although it may not be directly comparable to similar measures reported by other companies. Certain numerical information is presented on a rounded basis. Minor differences in totals and percentage calculations may exist due to rounding. About Optimum Communications Optimum Communications, Inc. (NYSE: OPTU) is one of the largest broadband communications and video services providers in the United States, delivering broadband, video, mobile, proprietary content and advertising services to approximately 4.2 million residential and business customers across 21 states through its Optimum brand. We operate Optimum Media, an advanced advertising and data business, which provides audience-based, multiscreen advertising solutions to local, regional and national businesses and advertising clients. We also operate News 12, which is focused on delivering best-in-class hyperlocal news content. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Certain statements in this earnings release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, all statements other than statements of historical facts contained in this earnings release regarding our intentions, beliefs or current expectations concerning, among other things, our future financial condition, liquidity, capital structure and results of operations; our strategy, objectives, prospects and trends, including driving margin expansion, improving broadband trends (including simplifying products and services and pricing and improving convergence and value-added product sell-in), maintaining financial discipline (including base management, , cost optimization and our AI and automation capabilities) and investing for long-term value creation (including fiber expansion, network upgrades and investments); our capital structure, including our ability to address upcoming maturities, refinancing activities, deleveraging initiatives and transformation plans; our subscriber trends (including broadband, mobile, video and fiber, churn, customer growth, retention, and penetration) and competitive dynamics; our go-to-market strategies and pricing and rate management strategies and the anticipated benefits thereof; our expectations regarding future financial performance, including revenue, ARPU, Adjusted EBITDA, cash capital expenditures and passings additions; network enhancements (including fiber expansion, HFC network upgrades, multi-gig speeds and related growth opportunities); and future developments in the markets in which we participate or are seeking to participate. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology, including without limitation the terms "anticipate", "believe", "could", "estimate", "expect", "forecast", "intend", "may", "opportunity", "plan", "project", "should", "target", "outlook", or "will" or, in each case, their negative, or other variations or comparable terminology. Where, in any forward-looking statement, we express an expectation or belief as to future results or events, such expectation or belief is expressed in good faith and believed to have a reasonable basis, but there can be no assurance that the expectation or belief will result or be achieved or accomplished. To the extent that statements in this earnings release are not recitations of historical fact, such statements constitute forward-looking statements, which, by definition, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements including risks referred to in our SEC filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2025 and subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. You are cautioned to not place undue reliance on Optimum Communications’ forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it was made. Optimum Communications specifically disclaims any obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, as of any future date. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260806423198/en/ Contacts Investor Relations John Hsu: +1 917 405 2097 / [email protected] Sarah Freedman: +1 631 660 8714 / [email protected] Media Relations Lisa Anselmo: +1 516 279 9461 / [email protected] Janet Meahan: +1 516 519 2353 / [email protected]

Vishay Intertechnology (VSH) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.19 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.15 per share. This compares to a loss of $0.07 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items. This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of +26.67%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this chipmaker would post earnings of $0.03 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.05, delivering a surprise of +66.67%. Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times. Vishay, which belongs to the Zacks Semiconductor - Discretes industry, posted revenues of $888.58 million for the quarter ended June 2026, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.54%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $762.25 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters. The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call. Vishay shares have added about 168.1% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 13%. While Vishay has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock? There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately. Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions. Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Vishay was mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and the current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.25 on $908.35 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $0.75 on $3.58 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year. Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Semiconductor - Discretes is currently in the top 45% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1. Another stock from the broader Zacks Computer and Technology sector, Optimum Communications, Inc. (OPTU), has yet to report results for the quarter ended June 2026. The results are expected to be released on August 6. This company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.17 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +19.1%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. Optimum Communications, Inc.'s revenues are expected to be $2.03 billion, down 5.7% from the year-ago quarter. Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Vishay Intertechnology, Inc. (VSH) : Free Stock Analysis Report Optimum Communications, Inc. (OPTU) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com). Zacks Investment Research