On 29 March 2019, Australiaâs leading telecom company, Telstra Corporation Limited (ASX: TLS) paid a fully franked interim dividend of 8 cents per share, comprising an interim ordinary dividend of 5 cents per share and an interim special dividend of 3 cents per share. The ordinary dividend of 5 cents per share is representing a payout ratio of 84% on underlying earnings.
Telstraâs shares were up 0.302% in the intraday trade as on 29 March 2019.
For the first half of FY 2019, the company reported total income (reported basis) of $13.8 billion, down by 4.1% on the previous corresponding period (pcp). The company's EBITDA on a reported basis was $4.3 billion, down by 16.4 percent, and NPAT was $1.2 billion, down 27.4 percent as compared to the previous corresponding period. The half-year results were mainly affected by the rollout of NBN. The negative impact of the NBN is expected to be at least $3 billion in annual EBITDA.
During the half year period, the company witnessed continued growth in its customer numbers and made progress with its cost reduction program. The companyâs Underlying fixed costs were down by 4.2% or $162 million in H1 FY19 with approximately $900 million in annualised cost reductions achieved since the program began in 2016.
In June 2018, the company announced its T22 strategy which was designed to accelerate the companyâs rate of change and leverage the investments and it is more about simplifying the business and reducing the companyâs cost base for the future.
In FY19, Telstra Corporation is expecting its total income to be in between $26.2 - $28.1 bn with capital expenditure to be in the range of $3.1 and 3.6 bn. During the first half of FY 2019, the company added 239,000 additional retail postpaid mobile services and added 125,000 mobile services that were a mix of prepaid and postpaid.
The company recently issued EUR 600 million bond issue under its Debt Issuance Program Offering, proceeds of which will be used for general corporate purposes.
Now, letâs have a glance at the companyâs stock performance and the return it has posted over the past few months. The stock is trading at a price of $3.320, up by 0.302% during the dayâs trade with a market capitalisation of ~$39.37 billion as on 29 March 2019. The counter opened the day at $3.300 and reached the dayâs high of $3.320 and touched a dayâs low of $3.300 with a daily volume of ~ 24,833,833. The stock has provided a year till date return of 20.64% & also posted returns of 4.75%, 18.08% & 5.75% over the past six months, three & one-month period respectively. It had a 52-week high price of $3.336 and touched 52 weeks low of $2.547, with an average volume of ~27,655,097.
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