Mobile momentum builds; shares look underrated

AO has announced a UK-wide partnership with Timpson whereby customers can trade-in their old smartphones to one of Timpson’s 1,300 stores and receive the trade-in value within 15 minutes. This exciting initiative follows a successful 4-month trial and marks another significant step forward in AO’s mobile strategy, following its recent launch of “Switch24”. 

AO’s acquisition of musicMagpie in December 2024, for just £10m equity, extended AO’s mobile proposition into refurbished smartphones, catering for customers wanting value and, importantly, a sustainable choice. We anticipate musicMagpie’s new partnership with Timpson will be a win for consumers, particularly the 68% of consumers preferring to trade-in their devices in person, a win for musicMagpie as their stock of smartphones increases, and a win for AO. 

On adjusted estimates, we forecast that AO will generate over £140m cumulative FCF FY26E-FY28E and a 13% CAGR in Adj. EPS FY25-FY28E. Yet it trades on only c.15x cal 2027 PER, which we believe significantly undervalues AO’s growth prospects. Our unchanged 170p Fair Value per share equates to c. 5% cal 2027 FCF yield.