If Bt has bought back 2million 5 thousand shares to day. How come it shows on trades as a sell?

July 19, 2007


BT - FUTURE GROWTH BASED ON
SECURE FOUNDATIONS


BT's future as a company is based on the solid foundations of financial
stability, regulatory certainty and global capability. That was the key message
delivered today by BT chairman Sir Christopher Bland when addressing the
company's shareholders at the Annual General Meeting at the Sage in Gateshead.
The speech was Sir Christopher's final address to BT's shareholders before
retiring in September, to be succeeded as chairman by Sir Michael Rake,
currently chairman of KPMG International.

Describing last year's performance as 'very strong', Sir Christopher noted some
financial highlights: 'Our revenues grew by 4% to over 20.2 billion. Our profit
grew by 15% to 2,495 million. And earnings per share were up 16% to 22.7p. I am
delighted to confirm that we have increased the full year dividend by 27 per
cent to 15.1 pence.' Sir Christopher also confirmed that BT has achieved the
ratio of dividends to earnings of two-thirds 'one year earlier than planned. In
future we expect to increase the dividend, taking into account our earnings
growth, cash generation and ongoing investment needs.'

Referring to BT's strategy, Sir Christopher emphasised that BT would maintain 'a
continual focus on customers. We succeed by understanding what they want today ,
and by anticipating what they will want tomorrow'.

Looking back on his six year tenure at the company, Sir Christopher noted that
when he joined: ' We were suffering from the ailments common to many European
telecoms companies. We needed to raise cash, sell non-core businesses and
reshape the business.' These strategic priorities 'were addressed within 12
months, making BT the first telco in Europe to tackle these issues head-on.'

Summing up, Sir Christopher noted: 'We have established secure foundations on
which future growth can now be built. We see a marketplace which is highly
competitive but full of exciting opportunities. We have come a long way, but
there is much more to be achieved. There is a momentum in BT which continues to
build, and management is clearly focused on the opportunities which lie ahead.

Sir Christopher concluded his speech by thanking BT's shareholders and employees
for their loyalty and support.

sp 331p

Chart looks like it may be a good buying opportunity. The 200p level is historically good support & the 200 DMA at approx 260, there may be a recovery to that level. Broker consensus is for BT to reach 270, with a hold rating.
2007/08 Final (proposed) Dividend 10.4p, payable 15 Sep 2008, record date 22 Aug 2008

Argee, chart does show support at 200p level, I brought my first batch in February at 257, a little bit early I guess and my next buy target is 205p. If FTSE corrects to 5800 level I would expect to be able to pick some BT.A shares.

The only nagging worry I have is that we are still in a bear rally after this most recent bear market bull rally. If we see worse economic news then BT.A could head south with the rest of the market.

Decisions Decisions.................

Isn't it amazing after buying back several million shares nearly every day the sp continues to decline somebody should tell the directors.

An amazing fall... and it has almost 10p divi built into the price (20/8/08)...

The divi isn't built into the price as the ex date isn't until the 20th August.

so the divi is included in price since the market will strip it out on the xd date.

Investec Securities has repeated its BUY recommendation on BT Group Plc. target only 230p

in at 173p

nice

anyone heard the bid rumour?

It's total cobblers maestro. I reckon it's just a case of a couple of strategic investment stakes being built while the sp is on its arse.
By the way, I reckon we need a new BT thread with charts in the header. I'll start one when I get a few minutes.

Ex-divi wed 20th Aug. 10.4p
230p is optimistic in the short term, imo.

ex divi and over 10p down.

I hold bt as well. grim is it not. This has happened to me on quite a few of my holdings just lately. On quite a few occasion the shares can fall a lot more than the dividend that is paid out on the day. The market is terrible at the moment. My advice just sit tight and hope for the market to pick up. I bought 10000 of these at 1.98. not that long ago. There will be a lot of people out there in the same boat. So keep calm and wait.

CHEERS

Chart is a bit of a worry as the sp has not been this low for over 5 years, so very difficult to pick a support level. BT have stopped their buyback program & are going down the fibre optic route which means much more expenditure, so my guess is that this isn't going to change significantly in the near future.
"BT's Ian Livingstone has made his first splash as chief executive announcing plans to roll out a major high-speed fibre optic network across the UK. The 1.5bn rollout aims to reach 10m homes by 2012, and BT is putting its 2.5bn share buy-back programme on hold to fund the project, which will increase capital expenditure by an additional 100m a year for the next two years."
Long term investment now, imo, if you are still holding.

1.5billion over 4 years is not an enormous increase in capex but it is an investment in the company's future growth which other smaller competitors may find it difficult to match. If the alternative is a share buyback program in a bear market I for one as a shareholder would rather see these funds invested in the business to generate more revenue.

Hear Hear//i say

With the yield now 10% I couldn't resist, brought some more today at 164p, no idea where the bottom could be be, so have held funds back to purchase more lower down.

I didn't know that BT now have 33% of the UK broadband market, and will hopefully if things go well be a major player outside of the UK.

See the link below which is the first interview with the new chief exec Ian Livingstone. He seems to come over pretty well and makes some interesting points.

www.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7568466.stm