PETALING JAYA: There are mixed views in the market on telecommunications provider Maxis Bhd
’s outlook despite the company announcing second quarter ended June 30, 2026 (2Q26) results last Friday that largely met expectations and declaring a second interim dividend.
Analysts disagreed over the company’s future performance, with BIMB Research downgrading the stock to a “sell” from “hold”, but maintaining the target price (TP) at RM3.30.
“While Maxis continues to deliver resilient operational performance, we are cautious on the potential earnings impact from Digital Nasional Bhd’s (DNB) share of losses, which could weigh on reported earnings and limit valuation upside,” BIMB Research said, sharing that equity accounting from DNB may begin as early as 4Q26, as indicated by Maxis management.
It said competitive intensity would unlikely ease, with U Mobile Sdn Bhd’s ongoing 5G wholesale expansion to introduce new competitors into the market, while adding pressure on industry pricing and customer acquisition.
Phillip Capital Research expects continued uncertainty around Malaysia’s 5G deployment timeline and the complexity of multi-party coordination to continue weighing on Maxis’ share price.
It has maintained a “hold” rating on the stock with an unchanged TP of RM3.78 despite the positive earnings outlook and stable dividend payout.
UOB Kay Hian Research has maintained a “buy” call on the stock with a TP of RM4.20 on share price weakness.
This follows guidance from Maxis of capital expenditure spending of over RM1bil focusing on fibre footprint expansion (for both consumer and enterprise/data centre connectivity) and mobile network infrastructure capacity upgrades.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Research maintained a “buy” call and unchanged TP of RM4.45, believing that improving clarity on the industry’s long-term 5G structure would help alleviate the overhang and narrow valuation discounts across telco stocks.
“We like Maxis given its resilient postpaid momentum and disciplined cost management,” it added.
Several analysts have revised upwards the earnings expectations, as well as TP targets, following the 2Q26 results.
MBSB Research, which said the results came in slightly above its expectations, raised financial year ending Dec 31, 2026 (FY26) to FY28 earnings by 6.4% to 7.4% on higher profit margin reflecting better cost structure.
It said the TP has been revised to RM4.31 from RM4.05 on the higher earnings projections.
“On another note, the dividend yield of close to 5% remains an additional appeal to the stock,” it said.
The research house said the company’s 10% year-on-year (y-o-y) rise of 2Q26 earnings was an improvement supported by better consumer and enterprise revenue, both of which grew at 2.2% y-o-y.
In addition, the profit margin expanded to 16.6% from 15.7% in 2Q25.
Kenanga Research also revised FY26 earnings by 5.3%, underscored by the delayed commencement of DNB’s equity accounting, which it now expects to take effect in 4Q26, in line with the company’s latest guidance.
“Our TP is raised slightly to RM3.70 (from RM3.63) as we roll forward our valuation base year to FY27 based on unchanged multiple of nine times forward enterprise value/earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation,” it added.
