Pinnacle Associates Ltd. Makes New $96,000 Investment in Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ:VOD)

Pinnacle Associates Ltd. bought a new stake in Vodafone Group PLC (NASDAQ:VOD) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 10,230 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock, valued at approximately $96,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VOD. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of Vodafone Group by 57,500.0% in the fourth quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 29,952 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $254,000 after purchasing an additional 29,900 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in shares of Vodafone Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $970,000. Waverly Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vodafone Group in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $216,000. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vodafone Group in the first quarter valued at approximately $125,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of Vodafone Group by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 846,901 shares of the cell phone carrier’s stock valued at $7,190,000 after purchasing an additional 68,833 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 7.84% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on VOD shares. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Vodafone Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Berenberg Bank raised shares of Vodafone Group to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, June 26th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on shares of Vodafone Group in a report on Wednesday, July 2nd. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed an “underweight” rating on shares of Vodafone Group in a report on Wednesday, April 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

Vodafone Group Price Performance

VOD opened at $11.11 on Wednesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $10.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.26. Vodafone Group PLC has a 52 week low of $8.00 and a 52 week high of $11.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.10 billion, a PE ratio of 9.75, a P/E/G ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 0.59.

Vodafone Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a $0.2355 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 6.6%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. Vodafone Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.23%.

Vodafone Group Company Profile

Vodafone Group Public Limited Company provides telecommunication services in Europe and internationally. It offers mobile connectivity services comprising end-to-end services for mobile voice and data, messaging, device management, BYOx, and telecoms management, as well as professional and consulting services; and fixed line connectivity, such as fixed voice and data, broadband, software-defined networks, managed WAN, LAN, ethernet, and satellite; and financial services, as well as business and merchant services.