Vodafone Group Plc American Depositary Shares (VOD)

FairStock Score: 45/100 — MIXED

Key Financials

AI Analysis

AI-generated, general educational analysis — not personal investment advice.

I look for businesses that earn high returns on capital and sell at a sensible price. Vodafone is a large telecom operator with mobile, fixed, IoT and M-PESA services across Europe, Turkey and Africa, serving a base large enough to employ over 91,000 people. But the supplied figures do not show a high-quality earning machine. At the 2026-10-13 close of $15.56, FairStock calculates a market cap of $35.9 billion, a P/E of -111.14 and EPS of -$0.14. A negative earnings figure means there is no meaningful earnings multiple and no margin of safety from profits. FairStock also calculates ROE of 0.11% and ROCE of 1.52%, both extremely low; a durable moat should produce better returns than that. The balance sheet carries D/E of 1.00, while Piotroski is 1/9 and Altman Z is -1.05, signals of financial fragility. The 3.17% dividend yield and low beta of 0.33 give a defensive appearance, and P/B of 1.23 is not an extravagant price relative to book. But low returns, leverage and negative earnings outweigh that. Growth data is not available to me, and the Lynch category is none because only zero years of filed results are available under the stated rules. I would need evidence that returns and cash generation are improving before calling this a bargain.

In plain English: Vodafone provides mobile, fixed-line and related telecom and financial services, including M-PESA, across Europe, Turkey and Africa. The business looks weak on profits and financial safety in the figures provided: it is not currently earning money on the supplied earnings measure, and it earns very little on the capital it uses. At the recent close, the shares trade around their accounting value and pay a modest dividend, but the price does not look clearly cheap given those weak numbers.

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Data as of 2026-10-13 close · note generated 2026-10-15 · model deepseek-flash

Fundamentals from company filings and market-data providers; prices are end-of-day, not real-time. AI-generated analysis is general and educational — not personal investment advice. Scoring methodology · Score test · Disclaimer