Value Investor
Start free

Optimum Communications

OPTU on NYSE. Optimum Communications sells broadband, video, phone and mobile services to homes and businesses. Market value $270m.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to December 2025.

Should I look at this?

Look carefully before going further

Why it could be worth it

Nothing stands out yet.

What to watch out for

Read the warning sign in its own filings

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Cash yield
past 12 months to June 2026
-79.5%low

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $-79.48 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to June 2026
n/a

The filings do not give us enough to work this out.

Return on capital
five annual reports to December 2025
5.5%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns 5 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 43 of 100. Price score: 0 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$0.96 a share, 65% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $0.58 to $2.74.

Pays no dividend

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

1.6
0.5
0.1
0.1
-0.1
-0.2
2021202220232024202512 monthsto Jun '26

Spare cash swings from quarter to quarter here: a shortfall of $208 million in the past 12 months, a shortfall of $119 million in the year to December 2025.

Revenue
$10.1bn$9.6bn$9.2bn$9.0bn$8.6bn
Operating margin
25.0%18.7%18.4%18.8%-1.3%
Debt to equity
n/an/an/an/an/a
Shares outstanding
0.45bn0.45bn0.46bn0.47bn0.27bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive4 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)4 of 8 checks we could run
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • DebtUnknown
  • Revenue growth, five yearsShrinking, 2.8% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesYes, 40% fewer since 2021

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $2 billion last quarter, down 6% on a year ago.
  • A loss of $292 million, compared with a loss of $96 million a year ago.
  • It loses 35 cents on each $1 of sales, after keeping 16 cents a year earlier.
  • Over the past 12 months it spent $208 million more cash than it brought in, compared with $13 million a year earlier.
  • 5% fewer shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit more of the company.
  • Debt is $25.4 billion more than cash, up from $25.1 billion a year ago.
  • Sales did not grow on a year ago in any of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$2.2bn
December 2024$2.2bn
March 2025$2.2bn
June 2025$2.1bn
September 2025$2.1bn
December 2025$2.2bn
March 2026$2.1bn
June 2026$2.0bn
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024-$43m
December 2024-$54m
March 2025-$76m
June 2025-$96m
September 2025-$1.6bn
December 2025-$71m
March 2026-$2.9bn
June 2026-$292m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
13 February 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
5 November 2026

Who owns it

None of the long-term investors we follow own it. 193 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26

Sold out this quarter

Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

8 investors own more than 5%.

  • Patrick Drahi
    Passive investor
    99.9%
    Since 29 May 2026
  • Neil S. Subin
    Passive investor
    at least 11.9%+6.5 pts
    (filed with 3 related holders)
    Since 28 July 2026
  • at least 8.1%+2.9 pts
    (filed with 1 related holder)
    Since 30 June 2026
  • Barclays PLC
    Passive investor
    7.0%0.0 pts
    Since 31 December 2024
  • DEUTSCHE BANK AG\
    Passive investor
    at least 6.9%+1.7 pts
    (filed with 1 related holder)
    Since 30 June 2026
  • at least 6.8%+3.5 pts
    (filed with 5 related holders)
    Since 1 July 2026
  • BlackRock, Inc.
    Passive investor
    6.4%
    Since 30 June 2025
  • at least 3.2%−1.9 pts
    (filed with 2 related holders)
    Since 31 March 2026
  • The Vanguard Group
    Passive investor
    Sold down below 5%
    Since 13 March 2026

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 2 sold $6m, $140,400 of it under preset trading plans.

  • Olsen Michael
    General Counsel and CCRO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    3 August 2026
    Shares
    20,000
    Price
    $0.74
    Value
    $14,800
  • Olsen Michael
    General Counsel and CCRO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    1 July 2026
    Shares
    20,000
    Price
    $0.88
    Value
    $17,600
  • Olsen Michael
    General Counsel and CCRO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    1 June 2026
    Shares
    20,000
    Price
    $1.12
    Value
    $22,400
  • Olsen Michael
    General Counsel and CCRO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    1 May 2026
    Shares
    20,000
    Price
    $1.59
    Value
    $31,800
  • Olsen Michael
    General Counsel and CCRO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    1 April 2026
    Shares
    20,000
    Price
    $1.29
    Value
    $25,800
  • Olsen Michael
    General Counsel and CCRO
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    2 March 2026
    Shares
    20,000
    Price
    $1.40
    Value
    $28,000
  • Olsen Michael
    General Counsel and CCRO
    Sold
    Date
    17 February 2026
    Shares
    250,000
    Price
    $1.60
    Value
    $400,000
  • Goei Dexter
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    10 December 2025
    Shares
    1,000,000
    Price
    $1.78
    Value
    $2m
  • Goei Dexter
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    9 December 2025
    Shares
    514,182
    Price
    $1.75
    Value
    $899,819
  • Goei Dexter
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    5 December 2025
    Shares
    349,582
    Price
    $1.90
    Value
    $664,206

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

2 serious warning signs in Optimum Communications’ filings.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 13 Feb 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 6 Aug 2026 and 10 later 8-Ks.

  • Doubt it can keep going

    Serious

    The company or its auditor warned it may not have enough money to last the next year.

    “• adverse changes in the credit market and availability of capital to refinance or repay future debt obligations, and our ability to adequately address the substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern;”

    From the 10-Q filed 6 August 2026, Part I, Item 2. Management's Discussion and Analysis. Read it in the filing

  • Its past accounts can't be relied on

    Serious

    It told the SEC its earlier accounts should no longer be relied on, usually because they contained errors.

    8-K Item 4.02 filed 21 Sep 2026: the company said its earlier financial statements should no longer be relied on.

    From an 8-K filed 21 September 2026: Previously issued accounts should no longer be relied on. Open the filing

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

  • Sales have shrunk: 2.8% a year.
  • It owes more than it owns on paper (negative equity). Often that's from borrowing to buy back shares.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
Create a free account to run it

Your first deep dive is free.

What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.