Research houses are still optimistic on the outlook of the country's leading integrated communications services provider, Maxis Bhd.

TA Securities, in its research note, has tweaked Maxis'' earnings estimates upwards by five to seven per cent for financial years 2011 and 2012 respectively on positive telecommunications sector outlook and expected data and Internet to drive growth.

Maxis'' net profit for financial year 2010 was within ours and consensus'' estimates, it said.

For the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2010, Maxis'' net profit rose 21.3 per cent to RM610 million from RM503 million in the same quarter of 2009 on higher contributions from the non-voice segment and a bigger subscriber base.

Its revenue rose to RM2.31 billion versus RM2.21 billion previously.

Credit Suisse analyst, Foong Wai Loke, said the research house has maintained its ''outperform'' call on the company.

We believe its low-beta and high-yield characteristics make it a good hiding place during times of market uncertainty, he said.

MIDF Research told Bernama it has a ''neutral'' call on Maxis as it did not foresee any earnings surprises in financial year 2011 given that it was operating in an already saturated market.

We understand that the mobile penetration rate in Malaysia currently stands approximately 117 per cent.

We believe that the mobile domestic market will become more competitive, as evident in the decline of average revenue per user, it said.

However, MIDF Research believed that an area for growth for Maxis would be in non-voice revenue, or specifically in data and mobile Internet, especially with the popularity of smartphones.

The research houses expected Maxis price to range from RM4.60 and RM6.10. -- Bernama