Vodafone Group (NASDAQ:VOD) Cut to Hold at DZ Bank

Vodafone Group (NASDAQ:VOD) was downgraded by analysts at DZ Bank from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on VOD. Zacks Research upgraded Vodafone Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. UBS Group upgraded Vodafone Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded Vodafone Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $72.00.

Vodafone Group Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of VOD opened at $15.48 on Wednesday. Vodafone Group has a 52 week low of $9.21 and a 52 week high of $16.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a current ratio of 1.14. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $15.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $14.05.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vodafone Group

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

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.