JM Financial maintained its ‘buy’ rating Bharti AirtelWith a 12-month price target of Rs 2,450, which is 29% above the current market price. The brokerage said the company’s ARPU growth story continues to be driven by multiple levers, with a long runway.
Need for tariff repair and ARPU increase
JM Financial has stressed the critical need for tariff overhaul to sustain long-term growth and improve returns on capital employed (ROCE) in the Indian wireless industry, especially given the huge capital expenditure (capex) required for 5G. The brokerage estimates wireless average revenue per user (ARPU) to grow at 12% CAGR between FY26 and FY29, driven by regular tariff hikes and premiumization strategies.
premiumization strategy
A key part of Bharti Airtel’s growth involves upgrading its customer base. The brokerage said the company has a significant opportunity to convert around 90 million customers from postpaid and over 200 million feature phone users to upgrade to smartphones. This strategy is expected to be a healthy driver of ARPU growth.
5G and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) transition
The telecom giant is carrying out a phased transition from 5G non-standalone (NSA) to 5G standalone (SA) networks for its mobile wireless customers. The company’s FWA network is already operating on a large scale in SA. By the end of FY26, Bharti Airtel’s 5G subscriber base grew to 188 million, and the 5G network was already handling about 50% of the total network traffic.
Aggressive expansion in domestic services
The company is rapidly scaling up its “fibre-first” strategy, adding approximately 8 million fiber home passes in fiscal 2026, taking the total to 45 million. Additionally, the company accelerated the launch of FWA services in over 3,300 cities, resulting in the FWA customer base exceeding 3 million by the end of FY26.
Expansion of new growth engines
JM Financial The growth was highlighted by Nextra, the data center arm of Bharti Airtel, which aims to expand its capacity to 1GW in the coming years. Other emerging growth areas include Airtel Cloud and financial services; Notably, Airtel Money recently received RBI approval to operate as a non-deposit accepting NBFC and plans to invest a massive Rs 20,000 crore to strengthen digital lending.
bharti airtel share price performance
Bharti Airtel’s stake There has been an increase of 0.6% in the last five trading days. The stock is up 5.2% in the past month. However, the telecom stock has fallen 4% over the past six months. Bharti Airtel’s share price has remained stable in the last 12 months.
Bharti Airtel Q4FY26
The company reported a 34% year-on-year decline in net profit at Rs 7,325 crore for the quarter ending March 31, 2026. The firm had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 11,021 crore in the year-ago period. The company’s profit was boosted by a net tax profit of Rs 2,892 crore in the year-ago quarter.
Its consolidated revenue grew 16% to Rs 55,383 crore in Q4FY26 from Rs 47,876 crore in the same quarter a year ago.
The company also declared a final dividend of Rs 24 per fully paid-up equity share and Rs 6 per partially paid-up equity share, where call money has not been paid.