Cellnex announced this Tuesday its first share buyback, for which it will dedicate a total of 800 million euros until the end of the year (at Tuesday’s closing prices, it reaches a profitability of 3.9%). With this movement, it advances by one year the start of the shareholder remuneration policy that it had planned for 2026 after the strategic change that was transferred to the market in the Capital Markets Day of March and after which it managed to reach investment grade.
The market has reacted positively to this new announcement even though the company’s intentions were an open secret, which had already warned that it was considering this option together with the advertising agencies. rating. Thus, the titles of the tower more than 5% are scored in the next session, in what is the best day for teleco from November 2023. At mid-session on Wednesday, therefore, they managed to recover the 30 euro area after having hit the November 2023 lows in recent days.
The reaction of analysts has also been clear. Almost 15 different investment firms have ratified their assessments and recommendations prior to the new announcement between Tuesday and Wednesday. “We expected a good reception of the announcement and we will now see if in the short term the sale of some non-strategic assets for the group is carried out that could act as catalysts in addition to strengthening the balance sheet,” they explain from Renta 4. In this sense, The company itself did not rule out that an eventual sale of the Swiss assets would even allow increase this buyback or start paying dividend this same year.
“The news is positive because of the amount of the buyback, which is above our estimates, and because the advance of shareholder remuneration is definitely finalized,” they point out in Sabadell. “Additionally, it will provide support for the stock throughout the time in which the purchases are made, which after the recent falls is at very depressed levels, hence the timing of the announcement,” they add.
“Leverage will be raised by this measure but will still be able to remain within the parameters required by the regulatory agencies.” rating to maintain the investment grade,” Bernstein points out. Looking ahead to the end of this year, analysts They estimate that the debt will remain at 5.7 times its ebitda. “The punishment on the stock market has made it a good purchasing opportunity for Cellnex itself,” they add. Along the same lines, New Street Research adds that “although this was expected, the amount of the buyback is higher than expected.” “We expected about 250-300 million,” they add at Citi. “This opens the door to increasing the 500 million dividend next year,” they warn from BloombergIntelligence.
However, the average target price, after the ratifications of the experts, remains at 45 euros per share, which leaves a journey to its titles of almost 50% from current levels. Likewise, Cellnex continues to be one of the best recommendations of the entire Ibex. 77% of analysts suggest taking positions while only one analysis house, Mirabaud, believes that it is time to exit the value.
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