Bharti Airtel shares approach record high, can they breach Rs 1,600 mark?

Shares of Bharti Airtel have approached their record high touched nearly a month ago. The telecom stock hit an intraday high of Rs 1359 in the previous session and later closed at Rs 1348.20 on BSE. On April 24, the stock touched its all-time high of Rs 1364.05.

Of late, the stock has received thumbs-up from various brokerages post Q4 earnings. JP Morgan has upgraded it to overweight raising its target price from the earlier Rs 1,100 to Rs 1330.

The global brokerage said FY24 were largely in line with expectations.

Performance in India's mobile business was strong. India mobile business beat led by better subs additions and slightly better ARPU, said the global brokerage.

Nomura raised its price target to Rs 1550. It said “We believe Bharti will continue to benefit from its higher-quality subscriber base vs peers and be able to leverage its significant digital and enterprise initiatives in a 5G landscape, which will enable its transition from a telco to a tech company in the coming years.”

Motilal Oswal Financial Services expects a 25 percent upside on Bharti Airtel stock and raised the target price to Rs 1,640 apiece.

The telco reported a 31.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY) fall in net profit to Rs 2,072 crore in the March 2024 quarter compared with Rs 3,006 crore in the same quarter last year. Revenue grew 4.4 per cent YoY to Rs 37,599 crore from Rs 36,009 crore YoY.

Q4 India revenues climbed 12.9% to Rs 28,513 crore. Mobile revenues rose 12.9 per cemt YoY on account of improved realisation and strong 4G/5G customer additions during the year. ARPU in Q4 climbed to Rs 209 compared with Rs 193, driven by sustained focus on acquiring quality customers and mix improvement.