The Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) share price is down 2% after the ASX telco share announced its FY25 result as well as a share buyback.
Telstra FY25 result
Let’s take a look at the main numbers for the 12 months to 30 June 2025:
- Total income increased 0.5% to $23.6 billion
- Underlying EBITDA (EBITDA explained) rose 4.6% to $8.6 billion
- EBITDA grew 14.3% to $8.6 billion
- Underlying net profit after tax (NPAT) increased 1.8% to $2.3 billion
- Net profit rose 31% to $2.3 billion
- Final dividend of $0.095 per share, up 5.6%
- Annual fully franked dividend per share rose 5.6% to $0.19
Telstra said this was a strong year for Telstra as it delivered its fourth consecutive year of underlying growth, reflecting momentum across its business with “strong cost control and disciplined management”.
It noted that its reported growth in FY25 was stronger than underlying growth because of the significant one-off net costs totalling $715 million in the prior year, mostly relating to impairments and restructuring associated with the reset of its enterprise segment.
The company was pleased to report that its core fixed costs declined by 4.7%, or $306 million.
Mobile performance
The most important division is the mobile division, so let’s look at how it did during FY25.
Mobile income rose 3% to $11 billion and EBITDA climbed 5% to $5.3 billion.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) grew 2.1% year on year to $43.71, even with a product mix shift to lower-end. Postpaid handheld saw a ARPU rise of 2.5% thanks to consumer and business price rises, prepaid handheld saw 8.4% growth and wholesale delivered 5% growth.
Total mobile handheld users grew 0.6%, or 1.7% excluding one-offs.
Other EBITDA
The business said that some of its other segments saw the following EBITDA growth:
- Fixed consumer and small business (C&SB) EBITDA grew 42.9% to $363 million thanks to price rises and margin expansion
- Fixed enterprise EBITDA surged 75.7% to $239 million thanks to strong cost action, with NAS services growth offsetting legacy product headwinds
- International EBITDA declined 12.4% to $678 million
- InfraCo Fixed EBITDA rose 3.1% due to ongoing infrastructure demand and operating leverage
- Amplitel grew EBITDA by 3.5% to $382 million thanks to new builds and customer wins partly offset by the one-off gain last year
Telstra share buyback
After completing its $750 million share buy-back in June 2025, it has announced an additional share buyback of up to $1 billion.
This is a good way to return cash to certain shareholders and improve the per-share and shareholder-focused metrics such as earnings per share (EPS), the dividend per share and the return on equity (ROE) as it reduces the amount of shares that the total profit and dividend are being shared across.
Outlook for the Telstra share price
The company provided guidance of some financials it’s expecting for FY26.
The underlying EBITDA (after lease amortisation) is expected to be between $8.15 billion to $8.45 billion, up from $8.02 billion in FY25.
Cash EBIT is expected to grow to between $4.55 billion to $4.75 billion, up from $4.31 billion.
Business-as-usual capital expenditure is expected to be between $3.2 billion to $3.5 billion, compared to $3.38 billion in FY25.
Its strategic investment (on the intercity fibre network and Viasat projects) is expected to be between $0.3 billion to $0.5 billion, up from $0.33 billion.
The business is expecting that demand for connectivity will continue growing, and Telstra can deliver on that with its competitive advantages that put it ahead of peers.
I think Telstra shares are still a great long-term buy for both earnings growth and dividend growth, it seems one of the most appealing ASX dividend shares around.
