Eutelsat, which on May 14th issued its 5th downward revision in market guidance in the past 7 quarters, saw its share price crash May 15th by 8 percent (€1.30) to €15.10.  At one point the fall was even greater, to €15 a share, and significantly down on the €22.83 high-point of the past year.

Eutelsat had reported a 3 per cent drop in its 9-month revenue numbers, to €994.8 million.

“2019 is not quite the tipping point for growth Eutelsat was expecting,” Morgan Stanley analysts said, describing the modified guidance as “disappointing”.

Exane/BNPP’s analyst Sami Kassab said: “Over the last 3 years management has been successful in improving all metrics below the top line, but it continues to underestimate the revenue pressure it currently operates under.”

However, analysts at Berenberg Bank urged their clients to ‘BUY’ Eutelsat stock on the basis that it was now far too cheap; “We appreciate Eutelsat is not a stock for every investor, but for those looking for value with a high dividend yield, it looks particularly attractive. With the shares now back down to the levels where we upgraded, we reiterate our Buy rating with a new price target of €20.”

At March 31st 2019 the total number of channels broadcast by Eutelsat stood at 7,021, up 2 per cent and by 3 per cent stripping out the effect of the disposal of Eutelsat-25B. HD penetration rose 11 per cent to 1,509 channels, implying penetration of 21.5 per cent of channels compared to 19.7 per cent a year earlier.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Rivada visits Terran Orbital’s manufacturing HQ
2. Avanti wins spectrum debt obligation case
3. SpaceX breaks records for re-use launchers
4. IRIS2 already in trouble?
5. Intelsat contemplates next steps
6. SpaceX: 2.7m customers and $180bn value
7. Boeing, Virgin Galactic in court battle
8. Jupiter-3 a changemaker
9. Terran Orbital is again Compliant

Categories: Blogs, Business, DTH/Satellite, Inside Satellite