[ET Net News Agency, 16 March 2020] Morgan Stanley lowered its target price for China
Telecom (CT)(00728) to HK$3.6 from HK$3.8 and maintained its "overweight" rating.
The research house believes China Mobile (00941) will benefit more from the upcoming 5G
cycle. For CT, it lowered its 2019-21 net profit forecasts by 2.2%/2.4%/0.2% and assumed
flat DPS at HK$0.125 in 2019 and 2020, and HK$0.130 in 2021, which is lower than Morgan's
previous assumptions of HK$0.13/0.14/0.15/share in 2019-21 due to slower earnings growth.
It forecast CT's 4Q 2019 service revenue of Rmb86.8bn (+1.6%), pre-IFRS 16 EBITDA of
Rmb22.0bn (-5.8%), and net profit of Rmb1.9bn (-11.3%). (KL)