Comcast Stock Slides as Broadband Subscriber Growth Slows

Comcast Chief Financial Officer Mike Cavanagh reported that subscriber additions for Comcast’s cable business—which consists of the Xfinity-branded broadband, pay-TV, landline and mobile phone units—slowed at the end of August 2021, and lags behind the same period in 2019 before the pandemic. Cable peers, such as Charter Communications, Altice USA and Cable One, also experienced stock share-price selloffs. During the height of stay-at-home pandemic orders at the beginning of 2020, companies such as Comcast and Charter added record numbers of broadband customers as people relied on home broadband for work and learning. That growth has continued through recent quarters; during the second quarter, Comcast added 354,000 customers compared with 323,000 in the previous year. The company told investors in July 2021 it expected total broadband net additions for the year to have a percentage growth in the midteens from the 1.4 million net additions in 2019. On September 14, Cavanagh said that expectation hasn’t changed for the full year.