LONDON, March 21, 2026, 17:15 GMT
Vodafone Group Plc edged up 0.28% to 107.95 pence late Friday. Berenberg raised its target price, while the company disclosed it repurchased another 2 million shares.
It wasn’t a big swing. Even so, investors are gauging if CEO Margherita Della Valle’s overhaul will finally translate a string of asset sales and deals into more reliable cash flow ahead of FY26 results due May 12.
Paul Sidney at Berenberg bumped up his target on Vodafone to 123 pence, up from 119, but stuck with his Buy call, a broker summary dated March 20 showed. MT Newswires pointed to Vodafone’s “strategic simplification” following the Q3 update, with Sidney’s new price target now sitting about 14% higher than Friday’s close. Streetinsider
Vodafone snapped up 2 million ordinary shares on March 19, paying a volume-weighted average of 107.79 pence each, according to a March 20 announcement. The company is putting the shares into treasury, so they’ll stay on Vodafone’s books instead of circulating publicly.
This repurchase is part of a 500 million euro tranche Vodafone kicked off back in February. By then, the company had wrapped up 3.5 billion euros in buybacks since May 2024, according to Vodafone.
Conditions have improved, though not entirely cleared up. Back in February, Vodafone reported a 5.4% jump in third-quarter service revenue, with adjusted EBITDAaL—operating profit after lease expenses—up by 2.3%. The group kept its full-year outlook pegged to the upper end of its guidance. It’s still targeting EBITDAaL between 11.3 billion and 11.6 billion euros, and adjusted free cash flow—cash remaining after operating and capital outlays—of 2.4 billion to 2.6 billion euros.
Back in February, Della Valle told reporters she was looking for “good growth this year” in Britain, banking on progress with the Three integration. According to Vodafone’s presentation, the UK tie-up and network spending are proceeding as planned, with targets set for 700 million pounds in cost and capital-spending synergies by FY30. Reuters
Last month, the simplification story advanced. Vodafone struck a deal to offload its VodafoneZiggo stake to Liberty Global for 1 billion euros in cash, but will hang onto a 10% holding in the bigger Benelux operation. Della Valle called it “1 billion euros in cash to Vodafone” and pointed to more value potential ahead. Reuters
This comes after the broader reset. Back in May, Della Valle stated, “We are now operating in markets where we have strong positions,” referencing sales in Spain and Italy, plus the UK merger deal. That reset frames the latest broker note—and the ongoing buyback. Reuters
The tough stuff remains. Germany brought in 32% of group service revenue last quarter, but management flagged that mobile ARPU is still under pressure from fierce competition. Over in Britain, scale carries real weight, thanks in large part to BT’s Openreach and Virgin Media O2 shaping the landscape.
So, the next clear marker is May 12. At this point, eyes will turn to three items: Germany’s ongoing recovery, the pace of buybacks cutting the listed share count, and whether the portfolio overhaul is actually driving the cash growth management promised.
