Vodafone Idea shares: Q1 loss narrows; should you buy? Targets by CLSA, UBS, Nomura

Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) largely attracted 'Neutral' rating and unchanged target prices by stock brokerages following its June quarter results. UBS suggested 'Neutral' on VIL with a target of Rs 15. CLSA advised a 'Hold' on the stock with a target of Rs 13 apiece. Nomura is 'Neutral', having set the target at Rs 12,60 apiece. Axis Capital recommended 'Reduce' with a target of Rs 12.25. Vodafone Idea reported a narrowing of losses in the June quarter, beat estimates on revenue and Ebitda marginally, but lacked any major surprises.

Analysts said all eyes would be on VIL's three-year capex program and, thus, the management commentary would be crucial. The analyst briefing is scheduled today at 2:30 PM IST.

"We maintain our Neutral rating and target price of Rs 12.60 for VIL, based on 14 times FY28F EV/Ebitda. We prefer Bharti Airtel among the telecom stocks under our coverage. Key catalysts for VIL: successful debt-capital raise; industry tariff hikes; acceleration on subscriber additions; and strategic equity investment that may provide the much-needed confidence capital," Nomura said.

Vodafone Idea said its net loss narrowed to Rs 3,754 crore in the June quarter from a loss of Rs 6,608 crore in the year-ago quarter. Consolidated Ebitda for the quarter stood at Rs 5,034 crore, rising 9.1 per cent year-on-year (YoY). Operational performance was bolstered by sequential subscriber additions and steady upgrades to high-speed broadband services.

Over 67 per cent of the total base now uses 4G/5G services. Customer ARPU (excluding M2M) climbed 10.2 per cent YoY to Rs 195, up from Rs 177 in Q1FY26.

Average data usage per 4G/5G subscriber increased to 21.7 GB per month, driving total daily data traffic on the network to 88.4 Pb/Day.

Nomura said revenue for the quarter was 1.6 per cent ahead of its estimates. VIL reported a net subscriber gain of 3 lakh to end-1Q subscribers of 19.31 crore. This was the first sub-addition since the merger. Ebitda also beat its estimates by 0.5 per cent.

The quarter also saw VIL recording exceptional gains of arising mainly from gains from the remeasurement of the company’s stake in Vodafone Inc as part of the settlement with promoters.