Bharti Airtel Ltd shares showed some resilience on Friday, i.e. November 15, as they rose 3% despite posting a record quarterly loss of Rs 23,045 crore in the three months ended November (Q2).
At 9:45 am, Bharti Airtel shares were trading at Rs 369.60, up 2%, after hitting day’s high of Rs 373.25. Notably, the stock has risen over 32% in the last one year.
Bharti Airtel’s bottom line was mainly dented by an exceptional loss for license fee and spectrum usage charges (SUC) after an unfavourable verdict from Supreme Court on the definition of adjusted gross revenue (AGR). The company, hence, provided a total Rs 28,450 crore as a charge in the September quarter.
Revenue from operations increased 1.9% sequentially (up 4.9% year-on-year) to Rs 21,131.3 crore during the September quarter. Meanwhile, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) grew 5.2% sequentially (up 41% year-on-year) to Rs 8,936.3 crore. Margin expanded to 42.3% during the quarter, up 130 basis points sequentially and 1,080 basis points compared with the previous year.
After the earnings, UBS maintained its ‘buy’ call on the stock with a target of Rs 415. The brokerage firm said the company’a accelerated investments in 4G and the way it has defended market share solidly are the key reasons that a ‘buy’ rating has been maintained. It highlighted that excluding one-offs, Bharti Airtel reported a net loss of Rs 1,100 crore.
Credit Suisse also maintained a ‘neutral’ rating on the stock but raised its target to Rs 380 per share from Rs 370 earlier. Factoring Q2 results, the brokerage revised FY20 earnings per share (EPS) estimate to Rs 58 From Rs 14, but warned that regulatory headwinds will remain an overhang in the near term.
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