KUALA LUMPUR: Research houses have recalibrated Telekom Malaysia Bhd’s (TM) earnings projections amid their mixed views on its financial year 2023 and 2024 (FY2023-FY2024) performance.
Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) has lifted TM’s FY2023-FY2024 earnings forecasts by 6.0 per cent and five per cent respectively and reiterated a ‘Buy’ call on the counter with a higher target price (TP) of RM6.98 from RM6.94 previously.
It said TM’s FY2022 bottom line jump of 30 per cent year-on-year to RM1.5 billion exceeded expectations.
“FY2022 top line expanded by 5.0 per cent driven by all product segments, with voice advancing 1.0 per cent, Internet (8.0 per cent), data (7.0 per cent ) and others (1.0 per cent),” HLIB said in a note.
Meanwhile, MIDF Research did not make any changes to TM’s FY2023 earnings estimate.
It said TM’s FY2022 normalised earnings of RM1.2 billion met the research house and consensus’ expectations.
However, it has revised TM’s target price to RM6.60 from RM7.10 to account for the greater-than-expected price cut in the Mandatory Standard on Access Pricing (MSAP) review.
Meanwhile, Public Investment Bank Bhd has adjusted down its FY2023-FY2024 earnings estimates by 5.0 per cent also to account for the effect of the new MSAP on average revenue per unit (ARPU).
‘’We believe the impact of lower ARPU would be partly offset by a higher customer base given more affordable broadband prices.
‘”TM remains our top pick in the telco space, owing to its leading position as the country’s preferred network infrastructure provider,” it said.
Public Investment has maintained its ‘Outperform’ call on TM but introduced a new TP of RM6.20 per share.
At 12 noon, the counter eased seven sen to RM4.96 with 954,300 shares traded. – BERNAMA
