According to Goldman Sachs's research report, maintaining the “buy” ratings of China Mobile (00941), China Telecom (00728) and China Unicom (00762), China Unicom's target price increased by HK$0.3 to HK$84.3, China Telecom's target price rose slightly from HK$5.4 to HK$5.41, and China Unicom's target price increased from HK$7.6 to HK$7.8.
Goldman Sachs slightly adjusted the forecasts for the three major Chinese telecommunications stocks to reflect that the average income per mobile phone user was better than expected, leading to an increase of up to 2% in the EBITDA forecast for 2024 to 2026. The revenue of the telecommunications service industry in the Mainland increased by 3.3% and 1.2% year-on-year respectively from July to August, with a total increase of 2.3%. The growth rate was faster than in the second quarter, reflecting that the industry's growth was driven by stable mobile phone data revenue. The data trend for the above two months was better than expected.
In addition, the bank lowered the earnings estimate for China Tower (00788) to reflect slower than expected growth in the energy business. The EBITDA forecast was slightly reduced by 1% to 2%, and the target price was lowered from HK$1.2 to HK$1.15, giving it a “neutral” rating.
