Bharti Airtel Shares Surge To Life High After More Analysts Raise Target Prices

Shares of Bharti Airtel surged to a life-high on Thursday after multiple brokerages raised their target price, citing in-line fourth-quarter estimates and positive subscriber additions.

After a slew of brokerages upped their target price for the stock on May 14, JPMorgan followed suit while Citi maintained its 'buy' call on Wednesday. The telecom's solid execution, which has been backed by an effective premiumisation and focused capex strategy, continues to yield results, Citi said in a note.

India capex was also slightly higher sequentially, though full-year capex was in line, Citi said.

Performance in India's mobile business was strong for the company, with robust cash flow generation, according to Morgan Stanley. "A strong increase in dividends per share reflected confidence in future cash flows."

JP Morgan upgraded Airtel to 'overweight' and revised the target price to Rs 1,500 from Rs 1,100 earlier, implying an upside of 12.5% from its previous close. Citi has maintained its target price of Rs 1,520 per share.

Bharti Airtel's net profit for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 declined 28% sequentially to Rs 2,068 crore in the January-March quarter. The average revenue per user rose to Rs 209, compared to Rs 208 for the telecom major.

Airtel's stock rose as much as 3.58% during the day to Rs 1,356.85 apiece on the NSE. It was trading 2.47% higher at Rs 1,342 apiece, compared to a 0.03% decline in the benchmark Nifty 50 as of 10:35 a.m.

The stock has risen 70% in the last 12 months and 30% on an year-to-date basis. The total traded volume so far in the day stood at 2.6 times its 30-day average. The relative strength index was at 65.

Twenty three out of the 32 analysts tracking the company have a 'buy' rating on the stock, seven recommend a 'hold' and two suggest a 'sell', according to Bloomberg data. The average of 12-month analyst price targets implies a potential upside of 7.8%.