TELSTRA shares continue to win friends, having poked their head back above $3 for the first time in a fortnight.

They’re up another 3c to $3.10 this morning – a solid gain on last week’s $2.91 record low – on signs the government’s legislation to break Telstra in two will be blocked in parliament.

As Morgan Stanley’s Mark Blackwell writes in a report on Telstra released this week: “Everything has a price where it becomes too cheap to ignore.”

Blackwell is among the more bullish on Telstra’s prospects, with a price target of $3.65. Many of his rivals have spent the past two weeks slashing their targets as they weigh David Thodey’s propensity for downgrades, the impact of the national broadband network and Communications Minister Stephen Conroy’s threat of regulatory dismemberment.

Macquarie’s Andrew Levy reckons Telstra’s heading to $3.20 (down from $3.60 before its half-year results in February), while Sameer Chopra at Deutsche Bank has a target of $3.15 (from $3.70).

The telco’s friends include Fraser McLeish at RBS ($4.25 target) and Sandra McCullagh at Credit Suisse ($3.80).

(www.theaustralian.com.au)