London, May 9, 2026, 22:04 BST
BT Group stock jumped Friday, buoyed by upbeat research from JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs. The fresh endorsements gave more heft to Chief Executive Allison Kirkby’s turnaround push, coming just two weeks ahead of the British telecom group’s full-year earnings release.
BT shares jumped 6.6% to 236.20 pence, outpacing the rest of the FTSE 100 after JPMorgan upped its price target to 310 pence from 300 and reaffirmed its “overweight” call. Goldman Sachs held on to its “buy” rating while bumping up its mid-term dividend-per-share forecasts, according to Alliance News. AJ Bell
The shift is significant: investors are starting to view BT less as a sluggish utility and more as a firm putting hefty fibre investment behind it. JPMorgan’s research note—“Entering the next leg of the re-rating journey”—flagged the company’s improving equity free cash flow, or the cash remaining for shareholders once debt payments and capital expenditures are out of the way. That, the report said, could make a dividend double by 2030 a real possibility. AJ Bell
JPMorgan analyst Akhil Dattani thinks the next few months could help put to rest some of the worries that have been holding investors back from BT. He pointed to lingering anxiety around “altnets”—those smaller fibre upstarts who take a bite out of Openreach, BT’s wholesale broadband arm—but said the bank sees that pressure subsiding. Openreach’s line losses, JPMorgan noted, should start looking better from here. Proactiveinvestors UK
Friday’s gains came on the heels of BT announcing it will once again make its legacy consumer brand the focus of its operations. On Thursday, the company reintroduced BT Mobile for broadband users and unveiled “Behind Brilliant Things” — its largest brand push in ten years — dialing back the recent strategy that had pushed EE to the forefront for consumers. Reuters
Kirkby said BT, EE and Plusnet will each go after separate segments of the market. “Having invested heavily into our networks in recent years, this is now the moment to invest even further in our brands, products and services,” she said. Reuters
BT plans to roll out the campaign across TV, outdoor, press, and digital channels starting May 8. The company also revealed it is now the official telecommunications partner for UEFA EURO 2028, with its network lined up to deliver connectivity at nine stadiums, 24 team bases, and for broadcast operations throughout the tournament.
BT is stepping into a noisy arena. Vodafone and O2 are already fighting for mobile users, and Virgin Media’s there on the broadband front. Internally, BT also has to juggle three brands—BT, EE, Plusnet—making sure customers don’t get mixed signals and that marketing cash doesn’t go down the drain.
BT faces its next major hurdle on May 21 with the release of its FY26 results. The investor calendar confirms this timing, following BT’s February third-quarter update, where the company stuck by its financial outlook.
BT’s third-quarter numbers landed with revenue at 5.0 billion pounds, a 4% drop year-on-year. Adjusted EBITDA, the company’s preferred profit metric, slipped 1% to 2.1 billion pounds. The telecom giant’s full fibre broadband now covers 21.4 million premises, while Openreach picked up 571,000 new fibre customers for the quarter.
Still, cracks remain in the re-rating thesis. BT’s pre-tax profit for the third quarter dropped by 244 million pounds to 183 million, with the company calling out falling legacy voice revenue, softer equipment sales, and divestments as the main headwinds. Should alternative network operators keep grabbing market share, or if cash flow misses that 2 billion-pound goal for next year, there’s a real risk dividend hopes could take a hit.
Right now, Kirkby has some leeway. BT ended Friday right at the 52-week high on Investing.com’s range, moving from 222.70 pence up to 236.20 pence in the session.
