BT Group (LON:BT.A) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s What Happened

BT Group plc (LON:BT.A) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday. The company traded as high as GBX 247.30 and last traded at GBX 243.94, with a volume of 51,144,109 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at GBX 231.60.

Key Headlines Impacting BT Group

Here are the key news stories impacting BT Group this week:

• Positive Sentiment: BT reported a 12% increase in first-half pretax profit to £1.07 billion, raised its interim dividend and maintained its outlook. The company also benefited from record fibre take-up and a narrowing pension deficit. These results helped lift the shares after the announcement. Article: BT Group Reports 12% Rise in Half-Year Pretax Profit
• Positive Sentiment: Berenberg reaffirmed its buy rating and set a GBX 300 price target, indicating a more optimistic view of BT’s prospects. Berenberg recommendations
• Neutral Sentiment: BT plans to cut nearly 8,000 jobs as part of a broad cost-saving programme. Lower costs could benefit profitability, but the scale of reductions may bring execution and workforce risks. Article: BT cuts almost 8,000 jobs
• Negative Sentiment: Deutsche Bank reaffirmed its sell rating and assigned a GBX 150 target, well below the recent trading level, potentially weighing on sentiment. Deutsche Bank recommendations
• Negative Sentiment: Openreach is expected to miss its 25 million fibre-broadband rollout target by year-end, though BT expects to reach the milestone in March. The delay could raise questions about rollout pace. Article: BT to miss Openreach fibre rollout target

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on BT.A shares. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of BT Group from GBX 175 to GBX 165 and set a “sell” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a GBX 150 price objective on shares of BT Group in a research report on Friday. Finally, Berenberg Bank reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a GBX 300 price objective on shares of BT Group in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of GBX 231.25.

BT Group Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 187.58, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The stock has a market cap of £21.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.09, a P/E/G ratio of 0.38 and a beta of 0.69. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is GBX 204.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is GBX 205.83.

BT Group (LON:BT.A) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 5th. The communications services company reported GBX 9.70 earnings per share for the quarter. BT Group had a return on equity of 6.33% and a net margin of 4.11%. The company had revenue of GBX 875.30 billion during the quarter. On average, analysts forecast that BT Group plc will post 19.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About BT Group

BT Group is the UK’s leading provider of fixed and mobile telecommunications and related secure digital products, solutions and services.

BT Group consists of four customer-facing units: Consumer serves individuals and families in the UK; Business covers companies and public services in the UK; International serves multinational organisations headquartered outside the UK and overseas public sector customers; Openreach is an independently governed, wholly owned subsidiary wholesaling fixed access infrastructure services to its customers – over 700 communications providers across the UK.
British Telecommunications Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Group plc and encompasses virtually all businesses and assets of the BT Group.