Deutsche Telekom Doubles Down on Buybacks as Valuation Gap Widens

Deutsche Telekom is accelerating its share repurchase program, snapping up nearly one million of its own shares in just three trading sessions at the start of July. The Bonn-based group has kicked off the third tranche of its buyback, with up to €560 million earmarked for repurchases through the end of September. The overall target for the year stands at €2 billion, and the pace of buying is picking up — on June 30 alone, the company acquired 727,344 shares on XETRA at an average price of roughly €24.79 apiece. Since the program began in April, about 19.3 million shares have been retired.

Adding to the signal from the executive suite, board member Rodrigo Francisco Diehl has stepped in with personal purchases on both June 30 and July 1 — just as the stock touched its lowest point of the year at €23.54. Insider buying near a trough is often read as a vote of confidence, and when combined with the corporate buyback, it suggests the management team sees value that the market has yet to recognise.

The technical picture, however, remains strained. The shares closed the July 3 session at around €25.56–€25.60, a marginal decline of roughly 1% on the day but still a solid 5.35% gain over the week. The recovery has lifted the stock clear of the year low, yet it sits well below both the 50-day moving average of €27.45 and the 200-day moving average of €28.72 — gaps of about 7% and 12%, respectively. The Relative Strength Index of 41.8 points to neutral ground rather than clear oversold conditions, leaving the direction uncertain. From the February high of €34.35, the stock has shed more than a quarter of its value, pressured by rising interest rates and heightened geopolitical tension following the Iran conflict.

Should investors sell immediately? Or is it worth buying Deutsche Telekom?

Analysts remain broadly bullish despite the slide. Barclays trimmed its price target from €39.50 to €36.50 at the start of July, but kept an Overweight rating, implying upside of roughly 45% from current levels. The consensus target among analysts tracked by the sources stands at €38.19. Dividend expectations are climbing too: the market is pencilling in a payout as high as €1.13 per share for the current financial year, translating into a dividend yield of 4.4% — well above the stock’s historic average.

The valuation has become conspicuously cheap. For 2026, Deutsche Telekom trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.7, and for 2027 the multiple drops to 11.3. Both are far below the 10-year average of 17.8, underscoring how far the market has repriced the stock during the sell-off. The buyback, by reducing the share count, should mechanically boost earnings per share for remaining holders.

That tension — between a beaten-up technical chart and a compelling fundamental case — is unlikely to be resolved before the next major catalyst. Deutsche Telekom will report its second-quarter results in August. Until then, the immediate battleground is around €26.00: a sustained move above that level would provide the first clear technical improvement the stock has seen in months.