Despite Spark managing director Simon Moutter's relentlessly upbeat presentation the market was underwhelmed by the company's annual result.
Mr Moutter promised the company's operating profit could grow this year after many years of declines.
Spark's shares fell 5 cents to $2.86 on Friday.
The phone company - which used to be named Telecom - reported a near doubling of annual net profit, reflecting an asset sale.
However, Spark's underlying result fell nearly 8 percent and its sales were down nearly 3 percent.
The managing director of Harbour Asset Management, Andrew Bascand, said a return to profit growth might not be possible this year, although the chief executive and the chairman made it clear that think they are generating "real momentum" in the business.
"As a result of that they expect that this is a turning point and as a result they've got confidence to put up the dividend a bit."
But he said as an investor, there was some risk about the expectation of a return to growth.
"One big issue is the pricing relationship with Chorus. In this result and the forecast they've expected a continuation of the current pricing arrangements on their data lines with Chorus.
"Whether that happens or not is yet to be seen, but most analysts are expecting a repricing of that."
Mr Bascand said when all the small investments - such as Lightbox and the Spotify music service and the rebranding - were added up, it showed Telecom was spending money in next year to grow new areas of business.
"The problem from our perspective is we're not going to get any clarity on that for some time."
He said Mr Moutter had made strong headway in getting costs under control, which was one key for 2015 "to re-engineer the business with a lower cost structure".
