Ritholtz Wealth Management Raises Stock Holdings in Vodafone Group PLC $VOD

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ:VOD) by 6.9% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 745,428 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after acquiring an additional 48,076 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in Vodafone Group were worth $11,196,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VOD. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in Vodafone Group by 9,637.5% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,902,486 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $117,602,000 after purchasing an additional 8,811,061 shares during the period. SALT Holding Corp. boosted its stake in shares of Vodafone Group by 3,039.6% during the second quarter. SALT Holding Corp. now owns 3,623,500 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $38,627,000 after buying an additional 3,508,086 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of Vodafone Group by 282.5% during the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 3,161,978 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $33,707,000 after buying an additional 2,335,306 shares during the last quarter. Capitolis Liquid Global Markets LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vodafone Group during the third quarter worth about $23,495,000. Finally, Jump Financial LLC increased its position in Vodafone Group by 6,354.9% in the 3rd quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 1,345,455 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $15,607,000 after acquiring an additional 1,324,611 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 7.84% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VOD has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group raised Vodafone Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded Vodafone Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 31st. Bank of America downgraded Vodafone Group from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $13.13 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Barclays lowered shares of Vodafone Group from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 11th. Finally, DZ Bank downgraded shares of Vodafone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $52.38.

Vodafone Group Trading Down 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:VOD opened at $13.81 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 1.14 and a quick ratio of 1.11. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $15.16 and its 200-day simple moving average is $14.61. Vodafone Group PLC has a 12 month low of $10.28 and a 12 month high of $16.60.

Vodafone Group Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 5th will be given a dividend of $0.2766 per share. This represents a yield of 376.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 5th.

Vodafone Group Profile

Vodafone Group plc is a British multinational telecommunications company headquartered in London. It provides a wide range of communications services to consumer and enterprise customers, including mobile voice and data, fixed-line broadband, cable and pay-TV, and wholesale network services. The company also offers business-oriented solutions such as cloud and hosting, managed networks, unified communications, and Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and platform services.

Vodafone operates through a combination of wholly owned subsidiaries, joint ventures and partner arrangements across multiple countries, with a particularly large presence in Europe and in several African markets.