• by Wayne Friedman , October 25, 2019

Charter Communications stock rose sharply after its third-quarter earnings release, which showed its revenues grew 5% to $11.4 billon.

Although the cable TV operator/communication company’s third-quarter net income was down 20% to $467 million, this result and its revenue came in better than analysts' estimates.

Charter's stock rose 7% to $465.23 in early Thursday trading.

Charter’s big video business witnessed an increase in net subscriber losses -- 77,000 versus 66,000 -- with its video subscribers now totaling 15.7 million. Still, the unit’s revenue was up 0.6% to $4.36 billion, due to higher average residential monthly pricing.

As with other cable TV-based operators, its broadband/internet business continued its steady climb, adding 351,000 net customers -- up from 266,000 to total 24.6 million. Revenue improved 10% to $4.2 billion.

Voice business, with traditional landline phone service, doubled its losses versus the same period a year ago -- losing 213,000 from 107,000 to a total of 9.6 million customers overall. Voice revenue was down 7% to $477 million.

But Charter touts that its mobile phone service, Spectrum Mobile, is making gains -- adding 276,000 customers to now total 794,000. Mobile revenue has grown to $192 million from $17 million. Spectrum is Charter’s consumer brand name for many of its products and services.

Mobile revenue grew to $192 million from $17 million.

Advertising was down 10.6% due to lower political advertising, to $394 million.

Charter says its average monthly residential revenue per customer is up 1% to $112 a month.