Thursday preview: Vodafone Group to report 'growth deterioation'

Vodafone Group is expected to post 'growth deterioration' in its financial results Thursday.

Last month Deutsche bank lowered its recommendation from 'buy' to 'hold' citing concerns about the telecom company's worsening cash returns.

"We forecast growth deterioration through calendar 2013 with the outlook for financial FY14 set to confirm declining free cash flow (FCF), no further dividend-per-share (DPS) growth and a scaled down buyback to avoid increased leverage."

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Deutsche Bank said it anticipates organic service revenues to falter further this year, with a return to positive growth unlikely until 2014.

It also reduced its target price for the shares from 225p to 175p.

Analysts at Jefferies expect there will be no rise in dividends per shares (DPS) from the 10.19 guided in the fiscal year 2013.

They said Vodafone may show reliance on its Verizon Wireless joint venture with Verizon to sustain DPS growth.

It comes following reports Verizon wants to buy out Vodafone's 45% stake in Verizon Wireless.

"The urgency of fixing strategic weaknesses in the core may force Vodafone to accept an unsatisfactory [Verizon Wireless] endgame," Jefferies said in a note.

"...Vodafone can expect ongoing dividends from [Verizon Wireless] but it really needs to preserve this cash to fund strategic acquisitions."

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