Comcast shares tumbled after CFO Jason Armstrong warned at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference that broadband subscriber losses would not improve this quarter from a year earlier.Bloomberg first reported Armstrong's comments, which sent shares down as much as 8.1% around 11:16 a.
m. ET, their largest decline in months.Armstrong told the audience at the conference in San Francisco, California, today that he still expects broadband subscriber losses to improve for the full year, although quarterly results will vary.
He blamed part of the pressure on what he called "irrational fiber pricing."Analysts tracked by Bloomberg expected Comcast to lose 103,000 domestic broadband subscribers in the third quarter, slightly fewer than the 104,000 lost a year earlier.KeyBanc analyst Brandon Nispel expects consensus subscriber forecasts to deteriorate following the comments.
He said, "We would expect CMCSA consensus net adds to move lower, where an accelerating loss trajectory could require further ARPU pressure for Subs to stabilize, a cycle we don't see ending."Charter Communications fell 5.7% as the warning weighed on peers.