Bharti Airtel up 3% post Q2 results, hits new high. Should you buy or hold?

In the past one month, Bharti Airtel stock has outperformed the market by surging 14 per cent, as compared to a near 3 per cent rise on the BSE Sensex.

Share price of Bharti Airtel today

 

Shares of Bharti Airtel hit a new high of ₹2,130.85, as they rallied 3 per cent on the BSE in Tuesday’s intra-day trade after the company reported strong earnings for the quarter ended September 2025 (Q2FY26).

 

In the past one month, the stock price of domestic telecom major has outperformed the market by surging 14 per cent, as compared to a near 3 per cent rise on the BSE Sensex. Thus far in the calendar year 2025, the Bharti Airtel stock has rallied 34 per cent, as against a 6.9 per cent gain in the benchmark index.

Bharti Airtel - Strong Q2 results

 

Domestic telecom major Bharti Airtel on Monday reported an over two-fold jump in consolidated net profit at ₹8,651 crore for the second quarter of the financial year 2026 (Q2FY26), on the back of continued premiumisation in the mobile phone segment and record customer additions in broadband business. The company had reported a profit of ₹4,153 crore in the same quarter of FY25. 

 

The consolidated revenue of the firm for the second quarter came in at ₹52,145 crore, up 25.7 per cent year-on-year, driven by strong momentum in both India and Africa.

 

Consolidated EBITDA came in at ₹29,561 crore, with margins of 56.7 per cent, up 41 bps QoQ and 401 bps YoY, with India wireless margins at 60.3 per cent, up 89 bps QoQ, while Africa margins at 49.1 per cent was up 96 bps QoQ.

 

The second-largest domestic telecom company added 5.1 million smartphone subscribers during the quarter, and has overall added 22.2 million smartphone data users in the last 12 months.

 

The average revenue per user (Arpu), a key metric for determining the growth of telecom companies, increased to ₹256 for the quarter under review, up from ₹233 in the same period a year ago.

 

The key highlight was strong post-paid subscriber addition of ~0.95 million subscribers at 27.5 million. It witnessed robust 4G/5G Net adds of 5.1 million during the quarter, with 4G/5G data sub base at 285.8 million. The data usage per sub was up 5.3 per cent QoQ at 28.3 GB per month.

 

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel board has approved acquiring an additional 5 per cent stake in its subsidiary, Indus Towers. Additionally, the company has approved amendments to its Memorandum and Articles of Association to include emerging technologies and related areas.  ALSO READ | Can Vodafone Idea double your money? 3 technical factors in favour of stock

Brokerages view on Bharti Airtel

 

Airtel has reported a relatively resilient performance on the Indian wireless business front with healthy APRU growth, strong post-paid and data (4G+5G) subscribers’ addition, and margins expansion in wireless business. Key monitorable for the company would be the management commentary on overall growth drivers ahead, ICICI Securities said in a note post Q2 results.

 

Airtel continues to maintain its relative strength among peers in a consolidated industry with the industry leading ARPU, wireless margins and cash flows, the brokerage firm said. Analysts at ICICI Securities have a ‘Buy’ rating on Airtel with a target price of ₹2,170 per share.

 

“Overall, Bharti reported a strong Q2FY26, with better-than-expected performance across key segments. India wireless revenue grew 3 per cent QoQ (higher ARPU offset by muted net adds), but EBITDA grew ~4 per cent QoQ (2 per cent above our estimate), driven by continued margin expansion (94 per cent incremental margins QoQ),” Motilal Oswal Financial Services said in the result update.

 

Analysts at the brokerage firm in the August report said that they continue to like Bharti’s superior execution on the premiumization agenda. In addition, with moderation in capex intensity and a potential tariff hike, Bharti is likely to generate significant FCF (~₹ 1 trillon over FY26-27E), which should lead to further deleveraging and improvement in shareholder returns. The brokerage firm has a 'Buy' rating on the stock with SoTP-based revised target price of ₹ 2,285 per share.