Why is Airtel not moving an inch despite being a screaming buy?
Stock score of Bharti Airtel Ltd moved down by 1 in a month. View Latest Stock Report   If there's one Nifty50 stock whose recent price movement has been hard to explain, it is. Analysts have been screaming buy calls on India's second largest telecom operator for more than a year now, but the stock moves two steps up and then one step down. After hitting a 52-week high of Rs 623 on February 4, the stock has come down some 13.5 per cent. The stock is flat on both weekly and monthly basis, and down around 6 per cent for last 12 months.As Covid-related lockdown, virtual classes, work-from-home culture and an increase in usage of OTT platforms and online games boosted data consumption last year, analysts began to raise their bets on the stock. By June 2020, analysts average target price for the stock had hit Rs 645, data from Trendlyne shows. The answer lies in your mobile and broadband bills. A tariff hike is what the stock needs at this stage for a rerating, and investors remain skeptical of that materialising in the near term due to the impact of the second wave of Covid-19.Bharti Airtel has been one of the few stocks that are enigmas. It probably has the highest number of buy and accumulate calls. The key trigger for a substantial rerating has to be tariff hike, which has been elusive. You need that to cover up for both debt as well as regulatory dues, Gurmeet Chadha of Complete Circle Consultants said.Foreign brokerages are amongst the bullish lot. JP Morgan has a 12-month price target of Rs 760 on Airtel . CLSA believes the stock can shoot up to Rs 730, HSBC Rs 700 and Goldman Sachs Rs 665. "We think the market is under-appreciating a market share re-allocation scenario (from Vodafone Idea to Bharti and Jio), and we continue to believe one of the two outcomes - tariffs moving up, or market share re-allocation, is highly likely in the near term," analysts from Goldman Sachs had said in a report last month.Echoing similar thoughts, a JP Morgan report said Ebitda growth acceleration from market share gains in the core India wireless business, ARPU (average revenue per user) increases and tariff hikes are key stock drivers from here.Siddhartha Khemka of Motilal Oswal Financial Services believes that long-term investors can buy Airtel on every dip. Tariffs have not increased for more than a year-and-a-half now. 5G rollout will help Airtel come out with new plans, which could be much higher in terms of tariff. It may also help them in terms of Arpus," he said.A report by Care Ratings said Arpu of the top 3 telecom operators (Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea) is estimated to have averaged at around Rs 138 during FY21, an increase of 11.6 per cent on a YoY basis. Airtel's India mobile ARPU stood at Rs 145 in the March quarter. According to an earlier report, the telco is eyeing an ARPU of Rs 200 in the next few months.On the risk side, if Reliance Jio sticks to its aggressive pricing policy for the next one year and the cash-strapped Vodafone Idea stages a turnaround with a fundraise, Airtel may end up being yet another hope stock.