How to trade Telstra Shares
Telstra is Australia’s largest telecommunications provider. This is how an investor can trade Telstra shares.
Understanding Telstra: a brief history
Telstra considers itself Australia’s leading telecommunications and communications company, with a commercial lineage that extends all the way back to the 1850s. The company and its antecedence were a fixture in most of the major developments in Australia’s technological and communications history, and remains a major corporate presence in the nation today.
The privately listed company known today by most investors came to life in the early 1990s, as a result of a merger between Australia’s Overseas Telecommunications Commission and Australian Telecommunications Corporation. After several years of operation, the new company was renamed ‘Telstra Corporation.'
In the late 1990s, the Federal Government began the slow process of privatising the telecommunications giant, only completing the process in full in 2011. Telstra is now a fully independent commercial institution; and is seeking to define itself, with the roll out of the NBN, as Australia’s major communication technology firm, with international growth ambitions.
Telstra’s key personnel: who manages the company?
| Title | Description | |
| Andrew Penn | Chief Executive Officer | Responsible for conceiving, implementing and driving Telstra’s overall corporate strategy. |
| Alexandra Badenoch | Transformation and People – Group Executive | Leads Telstra’s commercial transformation, with a core focus on the way employees work and engage with the business. |
| Robyn Denholm | Chief Financial Officer and Head of Strategy | Specializes in setting Telstra’s strategic direction, and managing the vast financial requirements of the company. |
| Carmel Mulhern | Legal and Corporate Affairs – General Counsel | Manages Telstra’s in-house legal team, with the view of supporting the firm’s commercial objectives. |
| Brendon Riley | Telstra InfraCo CEO | Responsible for the maintenance and monetizing of Telstra’s expansive portfolio of assets for its wholesale client case. |
| Vicki Brady | Consumer and Small Business – Group Executive | Leads the department of Telstra responsible for consumers and small business. |
| David Burns | Group Executive, Global Business Services | In charge of simplifying Telstra’s business model, and coordinating its core-services, to improve customer and shareholder outomes. |
| Michael Ebeid AM | Group Executive, Enterprise | Head of Telstra’s enterprise size client offering, which includes large business and government customers. |
| Nikos Katinakis | Group Executive, Networks and IT | Ensures the role out of Telstra’s new network technologies. |
| Christian von Reventlow | Product and Technology – Group Executive | Heads the group within Telstra that creates and delivers the company’s product and solution offering. |
What is Telstra’s strategy?
Telstra is currently undertaking a significant restructure, in order to reposition the business to tackle the changes in digital communications, especially beyond the roll out of the National Broadband Network. This has meant major job cuts, and changes to the corporations operating model. The so called 'Telstra2022' strategy rests on 'four pillars':
- The simplification of product offerings, elimination of customer 'pain points' and the creation of 'all digital experiences.'
- The establishment of a standalone infrastructure business to drive performance and support the company after the NBN roll out.
- The simplification of the business’ structure and ways of working, in order to empower the company’s people, and better serve customers
- The implementation of a cost reduction program and portfolio management
| Description | Current | |
| Earnings Growth | The rate at which Telstra’s earnings are expected to grow. Investors wish to see continued earnings growth. Correlated strongly to the bank’s share price. | -29.5% (annualized estimate) |
| EBITDA | An acronym for 'Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization', it is a tool to measure Telstra’s earnings from its operational efficiency. | $4,300 million |
| NPAT | The level of profit left in Telstra after stripping out expenses and tax. It’s a good guide for real, shareholder earnings. | $1,200 million |
| Price-to-Earnings | Gauges Telstra’s share price in relation to its earnings. It signifies how much an investor needs to pay to obtain $1 dollar of the bank’s earnings. | 14.79 |
| Dividend | The distribution of a portion of the Telstra’s earnings to its shareholders, as determined by the bank’s board of directors. Measures on a per share basis. | $0.19 |
| Return on Equity (RoE) | Measures Telstra’s management’s ability to create profits from the assets it owns. A higher ROE is considered desirable by investors. | 24.48 |
This information has been prepared by IG, a trading name of IG Limited. In addition to the disclaimer below, the material on this page does not contain a record of our trading prices, or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instrument. IG accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of these comments and for any consequences that result. No representation or warranty is given as to the accuracy or completeness of this information. Consequently any person acting on it does so entirely at their own risk. Any research provided does not have regard to the specific investment objectives, financial situation and needs of any specific person who may receive it. It has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such is considered to be a marketing communication. Although we are not specifically constrained from dealing ahead of our recommendations we do not seek to take advantage of them before they are provided to our clients.
CFDs are a leveraged products. CFD trading may not be suitable for everyone and can result in losses that exceed your initial deposit, so please ensure that you fully understand the risks involved.
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