It's been a decent start to the trading week so far this Monday for ASX investors. At the time of writing, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has risen by 0.23% and is back over 8,450 points. But let's talk about what is happening with Telstra Group Ltd (ASX: TLS) shares on the ASX today.
Although the ASX 200 has had a good start to the week, Telstra is doing even better. At present, the ASX 200 telco has gained a rosy 0.63% and is up to $3.96 a share after closing at $3.94 on Friday afternoon.
This gain comes amid some fresh news that indicates that Telstra has been taking advantage of the current Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales.
Yep, Telstra has gone shopping.
According to reporting in the Australian Financial Review (AFR), Telstra has reportedly just signed an acquisition agreement for the Boost mobile brand in a $100 million-plus deal.
Boost, a virtual network operator with more than a million customers, is already a client company of Telstra, utilising the telco's network since 2013. Boost's acquisition, which is reportedly expected to be completed before Christmas, is the first M&A venture Telstra has initiated since its $267.5 million acquisition of cloud services provider Versent in October of last year.
We don't yet know the final dollar value of this deal, but the price tag is reportedly "closer to $100 million than $200 million".
Telstra: ASX share price snapshot
It seems investors are excited by this deal, judging by the reaction from the Telstra share price on the ASX today.
Perhaps investors feel Telstra has snagged itself a Cyber Monday bargain. After all, its rival Optus paid $250 million to acquire Amaysim's mobile business back in 2020, which netted that telco around the same number of new customers at the time as Boost will for Telstra.
This news could provide Telstra's ASX investors with the end-of-year boost (pardon the pun) they may have been hoping for. As any Telstra shareholder will undoubtedly tell you, this company has not had a great 2024 to date.
Despite the ASX 200 index charging almost 11% higher over this year and hitting multiple new all-time highs in the process, Telstra shares have been stuck in the mud. The telco remains almost flat year to date, suffering a small 0.4% share price loss since January.
Telstra also remains almost 10% lower than the ~$4.40 peak we saw in May 2023. Back then, Telstra was at the highest levels investors had seen for years. We can't say that right now.
Check all of that out for yourself below:
At the current Telstra share price, this ASX telco is trading on a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 28.17, with a trailing dividend yield of 4.55%.
