559,628 Shares in Vodafone Group PLC $VOD Purchased by Independent Financial Group LLC

Independent Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ:VOD) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 559,628 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $8,406,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC raised its stake in shares of Vodafone Group by 3.0% during the 1st quarter. ACR Alpine Capital Research LLC now owns 26,854,952 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $403,361,000 after purchasing an additional 784,305 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Vodafone Group by 1.2% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 15,286,509 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $201,935,000 after buying an additional 182,574 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in Vodafone Group by 9,637.5% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,902,486 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $117,602,000 after buying an additional 8,811,061 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in Vodafone Group by 9.1% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 7,331,144 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $85,041,000 after acquiring an additional 610,409 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SALT Holding Corp. raised its position in Vodafone Group by 5.5% during the third quarter. SALT Holding Corp. now owns 3,821,000 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $44,324,000 after acquiring an additional 197,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.84% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Vodafone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. DZ Bank cut shares of Vodafone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings cut Vodafone Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 4th. UBS Group raised Vodafone Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Bank of America cut Vodafone Group from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $13.13 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Vodafone Group presently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $52.38.

Vodafone Group Stock Performance

Shares of VOD opened at $15.62 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. Vodafone Group PLC has a 52 week low of $10.66 and a 52 week high of $16.60. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.74.

Vodafone Group Announces Dividend

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

About Vodafone Group

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.