Shares of Charter Communications Inc. were off 1.3% in afternoon trading Tuesday after Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich cut her rating on the stock to neutral from buy, citing concerns about growing competition in the broadband market. Reif Ehrlich worries about emerging threats to broadband incumbents from fiber and fixed-wireless access and warned that growth in the broadband industry “would be more limited going forward.” She sees a possibility that the new competitive landscape could limit pricing power as Charter may take a more defensive stance in a bid to preserve its positioning. “Charter trades at a premium to its peers and leverage remains elevated at ~4.5x despite concerns that growth could slow materially,” she wrote in her note to clients. Reif Ehrlich’s downgrade follows one of Comcast Corp. late last week. Shares of Charter have lost 30% over the past three months as the S&P 500 has slid about 6%.
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