Vodafone Group PLC $VOD Shares Acquired by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ:VOD) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 15,286,509 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock after buying an additional 182,574 shares during the quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s holdings in Vodafone Group were worth $201,935,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Vodafone Group by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Dynasty Wealth Management LLC now owns 24,676 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $326,000 after buying an additional 2,346 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Vodafone Group by 44.5% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 153,832 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock worth $2,032,000 after purchasing an additional 47,376 shares during the last quarter. Beto Financial Group LLC bought a new position in Vodafone Group during the fourth quarter worth $205,000. COFG Advisors LLC bought a new position in Vodafone Group during the fourth quarter worth $147,000. Finally, Coyle Financial Counsel LLC bought a new position in Vodafone Group during the fourth quarter worth $149,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 7.84% of the company’s stock.

Vodafone Group Trading Down 2.6%

VOD stock opened at $14.70 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84. Vodafone Group PLC has a fifty-two week low of $9.80 and a fifty-two week high of $16.60. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.38.

Vodafone Group Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America cut Vodafone Group from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $13.13 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Tuesday, May 26th. Zacks Research cut Vodafone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Vodafone Group from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 22nd. DZ Bank cut Vodafone Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Vodafone Group from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, May 31st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $52.38.

Vodafone Group Company 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.