{"id":22651,"date":"2012-09-21T00:43:25","date_gmt":"2012-09-20T22:43:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=22651"},"modified":"2012-09-21T08:26:56","modified_gmt":"2012-09-21T06:26:56","slug":"analysts-see-mtn-value-post-r160-per-share","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/22651\/analysts-see-mtn-value-post-r160-per-share\/","title":{"rendered":"Analysts see MTN value post R160 per share"},"content":{"rendered":"

South African mobile operator MTN<\/a> continued its sustained trade through a technical resistance level of R160 on the JSE<\/a> on Thursday (20 September), and analysts see further long-term value in the group.<\/p>\n

At close on the local exchange, MTN gained 93 cents to R161.56, placing its market cap at R304.54 billion and with a 52 week range of R126.65\/R163.89 per share.<\/p>\n

However, rival operator Vodacom<\/a> continues to be hampered by an apparent ceiling price of R110.<\/p>\n

Having reached a high of R112.22 on Monday (17 September), Vodacom has steadily slipped to a closing price of R106.09 on Thursday (20 September), off 2.54%, or R2.76, in intraday trade.<\/p>\n

The group has a market cap of R157.86 billion, and a 52 week range of R85.30\/R112.22<\/p>\n

The All Share Index slipped 0.17% to 36,400 points.<\/p>\n

Fred Teeling-Smith<\/a>, an analyst at Stanlib<\/a> said: \u201cIt does appear as though the R110 level for Vodacom is a ceiling for the price currently. I believe that the Vodacom price is all about its dividend yield at the moment and it appears that Investors are happy to pay for that at the moment. I do not think that the dividend in Vodacom is under threat in the short term and investors are prepared to pay for this.”<\/p>\n

\u201cAt R110 we do think that Vodacom is at the top end of its valuation range; while at R160, we still think MTN offers long-term value,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Teeling-Smith said that, while short-term issues around extraction of cash from Iran and slower revenue growth in Nigeria are likely to impact MTN\u2019s valuation in the near-term, a weaker ZAR has a positive impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we are seeing slower local currency growth in Nigeria it’s translated earnings are still likely to remain strong.\u00a0 We still believe in the long term story for MTN, continued voice growth and an increasing data contribution in markets that remain under penetrated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter a good run since the beginning of April, MTN has outperformed Industrial index by approximately 10%. It does appear as though R160 is a level that short-term investors are prepared to take profits,\u201d the analyst said.<\/p>\n

Nadim Mohamed, investment analyst & partner at First Avenue Investment Management, said of the two operators: \u201cWe see the future growth prospects for Vodacom and MTN as fully-priced at these levels, even though their dividend yields are quite attractive.”<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the value unlock of tower sharing in some of MTN\u2019s African operations might well surprise us going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

The analyst said that investors continue to wait to see how the aggressive pricing that Cell C introduced to the SA market plays out.<\/p>\n

“If Cell C is able to steal enough share from MTN and Vodacom, it may prompt them to match the 99c deal, which would dilute margins significantly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week,\u00a0Cell C<\/a>\u00a0CEO\u00a0Alan Knott-Craig<\/a>\u00a0said that the third SA operator currently has 9.4 million customers, and is signing up 700,000 new subscribers each month.<\/p>\n

Related article<\/strong><\/p>\n

MTN hits 4-year high ahead of interims<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Cell C\u2019s latest subscriber numbers<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

MTN spurred by Turkcell rumour and dividend yield<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Best tech shares in SA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Vodacom CEO Pieter Uys to move on<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Good value Vodacom not without challenges<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South African mobile operator MTN continues its sustained trade through a technical resistance level of R160 on the JSE, and analysts see further long-term value in the group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":11559,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[43,42,1481,26,28,3757,1482,27],"class_list":["post-22651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-alan-knott-craig","tag-cell-c","tag-fred-teeling-smith","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-nadim-mohamed","tag-stanlib","tag-vodacom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22651"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22651\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22658,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22651\/revisions\/22658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}