Bharti Airtel's shares were in the red despite recording strong Q2 numbers. 

What Happened: Bharti Airtel reported a 168% year-on-year growth in net profit to ₹3,593.2 crore from ₹1,340.7 crore in the previous year. The telecom's revenue jumped 12% to ₹41,473.3 crore. The net profit missed the analysts' estimates while the revenue was in line. 

The India mobile services revenues went up 18.5% year on year powered by tariff repair, strong smartphone data customer additions and underlying mix improvement, the company said. The mobile average revenue per user (ARPU) increased to ₹233 in the quarter from ₹203 in the previous year.  

The company's smartphone data customers were up by 2.6 crore year on year with an overall India customer base of 40.7 crore.

Bharti Airtel and its peers Jio and Vodafone Idea had hiked tariffs during the quarter to increase their ARPUs, which are among the lowest in the world.

The company also announced Shashwat Sharma who is currently COO of the company will become CEO from January 1, 2026 while Gopal Vittal will become Vice Chairman of Airtel.

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Brokerage Views: UBS gave the stock a “neutral” call with a target price of ₹1,595. The brokerage said the Q2 was broadly in line with consolidated revenue and EBITDA. India mobile revenue increased 10.3% from the previous quarter on the back of a recent tariff hike, the research firm added. 

The brokerage added that home broadband, Africa and Enterprise were slightly ahead of estimates while Digital TV came slightly below estimates. The research firm noted that the net profit was 21% below estimates due to an exceptional loss during the quarter. 

Citi gave a buy call with a target price of ₹1,950. The 10% and 13% quarter-on-quarter growth in mobile revenue and EBITDA was 3% and 5% ahead of estimates with limited subscriber churn despite the tariff hike, the research firm said. 

Price Action: Shares of Bharti Airtel were down 1.58% to ₹1,637.10 on Tuesday morning. 

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