One-glance verdict
Undervalued
$847.66 our estimate vs market $15.38
Wall Street consensus: $44.25 (-94.8% lower than our fair-value estimate)
98% below our estimate, below the bear case
Fundamentals snapshot
Cable One, Inc.
CABO · NYQ · Communication Services · Telecom Services
Current price
$15.38
52-week range
$9.90 - $168.54
Market cap
$87.26M
Balance sheet
Distressed
3.00x Stretched
Net debt $2.89B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
2 Rewards
3 Risks
2 rewards · 3 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 17.1% last year.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Return on equity was -126.2% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 31.3% to 23.1% over 3 years.
What this company does
Cable One, Inc.
Cable One sells internet, TV, and phone services to homes and businesses, with its main source of income coming from high-speed internet subscriptions. This business model is built on recurring revenue (money that comes in consistently from monthly bills), which can be stable because internet access is now a household necessity.
How the company got here
Founded in 1986 as a part of The Washington Post Company, Cable One became an independent, publicly traded company in 2015. A major turning point was its strategic shift from a traditional cable TV provider to a company focused primarily on high-speed internet. To reflect this change, it rebranded its customer-facing services to Sparklight in 2019, emphasizing its focus on connectivity. The company has also grown significantly by acquiring other regional providers like NewWave, Fidelity, and Hargray Communications.
What it actually does
Cable One, primarily through its brand Sparklight, is a provider of broadband communications services. It serves over a million residential and business customers in 24 states, focusing on smaller and mid-sized communities. The company offers high-speed internet, cable television, and phone services. Under the Sparklight brand, they also offer a mobile phone service for their internet customers.
Residential Broadband
This is the company's core business and main focus, making up the largest portion of its revenue. Customers pay a monthly subscription for different tiers of internet speeds to connect their homes to the internet. Cable One has intentionally moved away from prioritizing traditional cable TV to focus on providing fast and reliable internet service. The company also offers advanced Wi-Fi solutions to improve the internet signal throughout a customer's home.
Business Services
Cable One provides connectivity solutions to a range of business customers, from small and mid-sized businesses to large enterprises and other carriers. This is a strategically important and growing part of the company. Businesses pay for services like high-speed internet, dedicated fiber connections, and phone systems. These services are often considered more valuable and have more loyal customers than residential video services.
Residential Video and Voice
While no longer the primary focus, the company still offers traditional cable television and home phone services. Customers can subscribe to various packages that include a range of TV channels. In some areas, they offer a newer internet-based TV service called Sparklight TV, which allows streaming on various devices. The company also provides home phone services.
What management is betting on now
Management's top priority is the growth of its broadband services for both residential and business customers. They are focused on investing in their network to increase speeds and reliability to effectively compete with other providers. The company is also concentrating on providing a better customer experience to attract and retain subscribers. Additionally, Cable One continues to look for opportunities to acquire other broadband providers in smaller markets to expand its footprint.
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$99.24M
FY2024 Q4
$95.72M
FY2025 Q1
$45.20M
FY2025 Q2
$76.57M
FY2025 Q3
$84.75M
FY2025 Q4
$71.55M
FY2026 Q1
$49.80M
FY2026 Q2
$46.85M
Revenue
—
Net income
$-1.16B
Diluted EPS
-204.35
Operating cash flow
$120.86M
Free cash flow
$46.85M
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Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$35.77M
Diluted EPS
6.12
Operating cash flow
$118.22M
Free cash flow
$49.80M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$-7.62M
Diluted EPS
-0.49
Operating cash flow
$145.53M
Free cash flow
$71.55M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$86.53M
Diluted EPS
14.52
Operating cash flow
$156.52M
Free cash flow
$84.75M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$-437.98M
Diluted EPS
-77.70
Operating cash flow
$144.94M
Free cash flow
$76.57M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$2.61M
Diluted EPS
0.46
Operating cash flow
$116.33M
Free cash flow
$45.20M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$-124.73M
Diluted EPS
2.57
Operating cash flow
$167.62M
Free cash flow
$95.72M
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Sources
Revenue
—
Net income
$44.22M
Diluted EPS
7.58
Operating cash flow
$176.21M
Free cash flow
$99.24M
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Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $847.66 vs current price $15.38
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $44.25 (-94.8% lower than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $847.66 a share — about 5,411.5% above today's price of $15.38, so the stock currently looks cheap (undervalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Distressed
Net debt $2.9B. Interest coverage 3.0x.
Net debt
$2.89B
Interest coverage
3.00x
Cable One, Inc.'s profit covers its interest bill about 3.0 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here and 3 peers sit below 1x, which is the danger zone where profit does not fully cover the interest bill.
Distressed
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
CABO
BASELINE
Cable One, Inc.
Total debt $3.07B Interest coverage 3.00x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $26.78B Interest coverage 0.88x -71% vs CABO Carries about 3.4x less debt cushion than CABO.
Total debt $733.52M Interest coverage -0.87x -100% vs CABO This peer has almost no interest-payment cushion compared with CABO.
Total debt $674.07M Interest coverage 0.91x -70% vs CABO Carries about 3.3x less debt cushion than CABO.
What you should know
The case for and against CABO
2 Rewards
3 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 17.1% last year.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Return on equity was -126.2% last year — the company lost money on shareholders' equity.
-
Operating margin compressed from 31.3% to 23.1% over 3 years.
-
Insider ownership is only 10.4% (peer median: 11.3%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
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Forward P/E
1.06x
P/B
0.27x
P/S
0.06x
EV/EBITDA
4.31x
PEG ratio
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Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
73.5%
Operating margin
23.1%
Net margin
-72.8%
ROE
-126.2%
ROA
4.3%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
9.41x
Current ratio
0.47x
Quick ratio
0.40x
Total debt
$3.07B
Total cash
$181.85M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$960.03M
Revenue 5Y CAGR
3.8%
EPS TTM
-185.12
EPS 5Y CAGR
—
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$541.13M
Free CF TTM
$278.07M
FCF margin
29.0%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
0.0%
Payout ratio
457.4%
Last ex-div date
2025-02-18