It certainly hasn't been the best year for Australia's major telecommunications companies.
The share prices of Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS), TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPM) and Vocus Group Ltd (ASX: VOC) have all taken a beating in the past year.
So can we find a bargain among these sinking stocks?
Telstra shares are trading at around $3.47, dropping from $4.88 this time last year, representing a yearly decline of about 29%.
At the current share price, stock in Australia's biggest telco is going for about 10x trailing earnings with Telstra reporting EBITDA of $10.7 billion for FY 2017.
For FY 2018, Telstra, with a market value of about $41 billion, is expecting EBITDA ranging between $10.7 billion and $11.2 billion, which is unlikely to mark much of an improvement on FY 2017, if any.
Telstra ended FY 2018 with about $42 billion in total assets against about $27.5 billion in total liabilities, meaning the company has about $1.50 of assets for every $1 of liabilities.
This is not a particularly impressive figure and falls well short of a standard ratio of $2 of assets for each $1 of liabilities that would indicate a stronger financial position.
TPG's share price has also been smacked around a bit, dropping from above $7 a year ago to close on Monday at $5.76.
TPG shares are trading at about 12x trailing earnings, with EBITDA of $890 million for FY 2017, up 5% on the previous year, according to the Telco.
But TPG is expecting EBITDA for FY 2018 to drop to somewhere between $800 million and $815 million.
The Vocus Group share price has dropped by about 44% in the past year to land on $2.99 on Monday, making the worst performer among a dismal bunch.
Vocus is aiming for EBITDA of between $370 million and $390 million for FY 2018 which would represent a slight increase on the telco's FY 2017 EBITDA of $366.4 million.
All this means that I'm not particularly keen on any of the major telcos.
However, I will continue to keep an eye on Telstra, as I think it's the best of the bunch, and should its price come down a bit I will jump in.
But for now, I think it would be a sound decision to hold off and continue to look for better opportunities in the market.
