“During the pendency of the Cox deal, we plan to be at or slightly under 4.25x leverage.”

In context

“d cash paid for interest. Turning to cash taxes, fourth quarter cash taxes totaled $139,000,000 And while year 2025 cash tax payments totaled just under $900,000,000 We currently expect that our calendar year 2026 cash tax payments will total between $500,000,000 and $800,000,000. We finished the fourth quarter with $95,000,000,000 in debt principal. Our weighted average cost of debt remains at an attractive 5.2%. And our current run rate annualized cash interest is $4,900,000,000 During the quarter, we repurchased 2,900,000.0 Charter shares totaling $760,000,000 at an average price of $259 per share. As of the end of the fourth quarter, our ratio of net debt to last twelve month adjusted EBITDA remains at 4.5 four 0.15. And stood at 4.21 times pro form a for the pending Liberty Broadband During the pendency of the Cox deal, we plan to be at or slightly under 4.25x leverage. Pro form a for the Liberty transaction. As you may recall, when we announced the Cox transaction, we committed to move our target leverage to the midpoint of a 3.5 to four times range. We're very comfortable with our balance sheet. And our ability to pivot rapidly given our significant free cash flow generation. Which provides flexibility to reduce leverage by up to zero five turn annually over the next several years. But we have also heard our shareholders' preference for less leverage during a lower growth period. So today, we are moving our post transaction target leverage to the low end of a new 3.5 to 3.75 times range, which we expect to achieve within three years following close. Even with this delevering, we continue to expect significant ongoing capital returns to shareholders. Lo”