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

Looking at 204? Still holding....

Nomura upgrades BT Group from reduce to buy, target price raised from 182p to 285p

That's quite a target Dil! New 12 month high today.

Buzz light year?

Broker BUY......

BT Group FTSE 100 Communications Outperform 270 207.5 30.1% Exane BNP Paribas

270p SP target 30.1% upside.

UBS note out today:
BT shares have outperformed the UK market by 16% since the beginning of 2011. We expect Q3 results and ongoing operating performance to be solid. But we believe UK fixed faces more questions in 2012 with the launch of Sky fibre and YouView. Most of all we’re concerned on pension – with the 15-year UK Gilt yield now sub-3%, pressure on the actuarial valuation may be growing. We’ve raised our pre-tax deficit assumption to £6.2bn and cash payments to £650m pa.
We forecast revenue down -5.6% to £4,754m, or an underlying -2.1% when we adjust for milestone and transit. We expect a strong Openreach, and slightly weak Retail only due to a strong Q310. EBITDA £1,508m, EPS 5.9p, cash flow £584m, all more or less in line with consensus. No news expected on the actuarial pension valuation, IAS 19 of £4.5bn (£3.2bn) could remind the market a review is coming.
Operations are expected to remain solid, but Sky fibre and YouView introduce greater uncertainty this year. The actuarial pension review has begun, just as the 15-year UK Gilt yield dips below 3%. It’s not a direct impact, but we think it could put pressure on the deficit. We made rough calculations, but raised our pre-tax deficit to £6.2bn and annual deficiency payments to £650m over 12 years.

Today : Friday 3 February 2012


BT Group PLC (BT) will be making "ultra-fast" broadband, using direct fiber-optic connections, available to most U.K. homes and businesses next year, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The telecommunications company will announce the news along with its third-quarter results early Friday, the newspaper said. The high speeds, of up to 300mbps, are possible with a technological breakthrough the company achieved, according to the FT.

BT is also set to provide 90% of homes and businesses with access to super-fast broadband by 2015, according to the newspaper.

3rd Quarter Results.

Ian Livingston, Chief Executive, commenting on the results, said:

"We have delivered another quarter of growth in profits and cash flow despite the economic headwinds.

"Our investment to support our customers and improve our services has resulted in new contract wins around the world, with orders so far this year up over 50% in Asia Pacific and Latin America. In the UK, our fibre roll-out has accelerated bringing super-fast broadband within reach of over 7m homes and businesses and we remain the number one broadband retailer with over 6m customers. Our fixed-line base has now grown for the last five quarters and our active consumer line loss is at its lowest for five years.

"We expect to achieve our 2013 EBITDA(1) target of above GBP6bn a year early and to deliver free cash flow(2) of around GBP2.4bn this year."

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Yes - I'm sure they won't be the last this reporting season.

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They are probably concentrating here :-

"We expect to achieve our 2013 EBITDA(1) target of above GBP6bn a year early and to deliver free cash flow(2) of around GBP2.4bn this year."

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BT building momentum, says Nomura


LONDON (SHARECAST) - Nomura has maintained its buy rating on BT, saying that the telecom titan's trading momentum is building nicely for 2012.

BT reported this morning that revenue totalled £4,774m in the third quarter, down 5% on last year, while earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by 3% to £1,524m. Nomura notes that revenue was 0.2% below consensus, however, with strong cost reduction in Retail and operational momentum in Openreach, EBITDA surpassed forecasts by 1.6%. Earnings per share and free cash flow were 5% ahead of consensus, the broker added.

BT now expects to achieve its EBITDA target of above £6,000m this year, rather than in 2013.

"With consensus already sitting at £6.01bn for FY 12, we expect marginal upgrades to at least reflect the robust trading performance," the broker said.

Nomura kept its target price of 285p.

The price came within a gnats tadger of my limit sell towards the close - I'm unsure as to where this is going now - weekend press may well hold sway for a few PIs.