Shares in JSE- and New York-listed telecommunications group Telkom surged on Monday morning after the group reported better-than-expected results for the year ended March.
At 10.14am, Telkom shares were up 3,02% or R2,32 at R80,20 after earlier trading as high as R81,85.
Telkom was also the most active share on the JSE in terms of value traded, with R36,4-million worth of shares changing hands in 150 deals.
A dealer said that Telkom’s results were excellent and the market had warmed to them. Some analysts were now upping their one-year target prices for the share.
Telkom reported an impressive 175% jump in headline earnings per share to 864 cents for the year ended March 31, from 314 cents a year ago.
A final dividend of 110 cents per share was declared, which together with the special dividend of 90 cents per share, makes a total of 200 cents for the year.
Telkom was optimistic in its outlook, with CEO Sizwe Nxasana saying that the group will seek to continue optimising its capital structure to support the appropriate allocation of cash to ongoing cost saving initiatives and pursuing new growth opportunities, while returning dividends to shareholders.
The balance sheet now allows greater financial flexibility to participate in future corporate action, he said.
“Although the group will continue to look inward to extract further operating efficiencies, the focus will increasingly shift outward to seek new growth opportunities in selected new market areas, such as data, and exploiting synergies between fixed-line and mobile. Additionally, both businesses will seek to pursue considered African expansion,” Nxasana concluded. – I-Net-Bridge