BT Group PLC (LO:BT.A) has an influential fan in the City that reckons the stock has the potential to advance more than 40% in the next year.
The highly rated team at Goldman Sachs Friday restated its ‘buy’ advice. It trimmed back its price target 20p to 540p, though that’s still well ahead of the current price of 376p.
The upbeat assessment of prospects came as Goldman’s analysts picked through the company’s results statement issued Thursday.
The headline grabber had been the “re-acceleration” of the company’s fibre broadband proposition, they said in a note.
There is growing positivity surrounding BT, although it is subject to a regulatory probe by Ofcom, while there are also worries over the ballooning pension deficit.
Of the 17 analysts polled by the Broker Forecasts site, just over half (nine) were ‘buyers’ of BT. There were only two outright ‘sellers’; the remainder reckon the stock is fully valued.
The consensus price target, meanwhile, has come down from 510p to 456p in the past six months.
On Thursday revenues were up 1.1 % in the three months ended September at £6bn, giving adjusted earnings of £1.89bn.
The company was boosted by price rises and demand for fibre broadband.
Analysts and investors were closely monitoring the results for an update on the company’s pension deficit, which they duly received. It ballooned to £9.5bn from £6.2bn previously.
Goldman in its note earlier said increased its full-year 207 forecast for the pension deficit by £1bn to £9bn.