Brokerages remained bullish on Bharti Airtel Ltd. after the company missed average analyst earnings estimate in June quarter. Analysts have cited growth in non-wireless segment in India and Africa business as major positives, and expected the company to benefit from recent tariff changes, easing of covid curbs and the ongoing consolidation in the industry.
Shares of Bharti Airtel shed 1.71% to Rs 570.30 apiece before paring most of the losses. Of the 33 analysts tracking the company, 32 maintained ‘buy’ and 1 analyst maintained ‘hold’ recommendation. The overall consensus price of analysts tracked by Bloomberg implied an upside of 23.7%. Shares of Bharti Airtel gained 13.4% in 2021 so far compared to 15% gains for the S&P BSE Telecom index
Goldman Sachs
Reiterates ‘buy’ with a revised 12-month target price of Rs 675 from Rs 665 earlier.
June quarter beat driven by non-wireless and Africa businesses.
India wireless revenue was in-line with the estimates.
Wireless segment to deliver 20%+ revenue growth for next two years.
Moderating covid-19 headwinds, benefit from tariff changes and continuing market share gains to aid revenue growth.
Jefferies
Maintains ‘buy’ with the target price increased to Rs 685 from Rs 655.
Strong revenue growth in India non-mobile biz and Africa aided June quarter earnings.
Subscriber additions in 4G and postpaid segments were encouraging
Airtel’s data traffic growth remained healthy at 49% YoY.
Addition of 55,000 broadband base stations in June quarter, highest in over 5 years, likely to support data traffic growth.
Expect network costs to return to growth in subsequent quarters.
Strong subscriber additions and higher than expected ARPU aided Africa revenue growth.
ICICI Securities
Reiterates ‘buy’ with a target price of Rs 675.
Higher Ebitda in India mobile biz and impressive performance in Africa supported growth in June quarter.
Recent tariff hikes and normalization of recharge cycle in mobile to support earnings for the next two quarters.
Home and enterprise business performance continues to be strong.
Superior execution and rising probability of further consolidation in telecom market bodes well for the company.
