BT Group PLC (LON:BT.A) shares topped the FTSE 100 leaderboard early morning on Tuesday after Goldman Sachs upgraded its rating for the telecoms blue chip to ‘buy’ from ‘neutral’.
The US investment bank also hiked its price target for BT by a third to 320p, implying around 25% upside to its current share price of 261.85p, which was up 2% on Monday’s close.
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In a note to clients, Goldman’s analysts pointed out that BT trades at a 10% discount to its peers, which they believe is “increasingly unwarranted” as the group starts to deliver earnings momentum with improving regulatory clarity.
The analysts said they are confident of BT's long-term outlook and its higher estimates for the company.
They noted that BT has adjusted its strategy around going 'back to basics' with fibre investment and a multi-year cost transformation which is already paying dividends.
The Goldman analysts also concluded that the bottom-up nature of the group’s plan should minimise future execution risk ahead of Philip Jansen replacing Gavin Patterson as BT’s chief executive in February 2019.