Deutsche Telekom Hits a Fresh Floor — But a Director’s Share Purchase Suggests the Dip May Be Overdone

Stock slides to €23.54 amid T-Mobile US integration fears, buyback expiry, and satellite competition; UBS maintains buy rating with €36.60 target.

A board member’s decision to buy the dip has injected a rare note of confidence as Deutsche Telekom shares tumble to a new 52-week low. The stock slid as low as €23.54 during Tuesday’s session, extending a sell-off that has erased more than 14% of its value since the start of the year. Rodrigo Francisco Diehl, a member of the management board, picked up 2,000 shares on Monday at an average price of €24.64, a total outlay of roughly €49,000. The gesture, however, has done little so far to halt the slide, with the shares changing hands near €23.87 — well below the 200-day moving average of €28.84.

The primary driver of the selling pressure is mounting speculation that CEO Timotheus Höttges is pushing for a tighter integration with T?Mobile US, a move intended to strengthen the group’s competitive position against American tech giants. Investors are uneasy about the structure and potential cost of such a transaction, and the uncertainty is weighing on both stocks. Compounding the unease, Comcast’s plan to split its media and network businesses into two separate listed entities is seen by some market participants as a development that could worsen the competitive landscape for T?Mobile US.

A second near-term headwind has also vanished: a tranche of Deutsche Telekom’s ongoing share buyback programme expired on Tuesday, removing a reliable buyer from the market at a time when confidence is fragile. Adding to the list of concerns is the growing threat from satellite?based internet providers. SpaceX’s Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper and AST SpaceMobile have all been gaining traction, and while UBS analyst Polo Tang considers the risk overblown for now, he acknowledges that the emergence of these players could eventually pressure traditional telecom operators on infrastructure spending and rural market share.

Beneath the market noise, the underlying business continues to show strength. In May alone, the group activated 83 new mobile sites and upgraded 677 existing ones, lifting its 5G household coverage to 99%. On the fibre front, 173,000 new connections were added, bringing the total to 13.4 million. On the regulatory side, the European Commission is debating a draft “Digital Networks Act” that would harmonise the bloc’s telecom market and mandate the shutdown of all copper networks by 2035. Meanwhile, the company is phasing out its legacy MMS service as of 30 June, a reflection of the broader shift to messaging apps.

UBS has stood by its buy rating and €36.60 price target, arguing that the merger fears are unfounded. Tang is calling for an official denial from the company, which he believes would immediately relieve the stock. The technical picture, however, remains precarious. The Relative Strength Index has dropped to 20.7, deep in oversold territory, signalling that the selling may have gone too far in the short term. Yet with the shares trading at a fresh 52?week low and the next support level untested, the risk of further losses cannot be ruled out if the negative catalysts persist.