Credit Suisse sees limited upside to Vodafone stock

In a research note issued this morning analysts at Credit Suisse indicate that they see limited upside to Vodafone shares.

Simply put, "as Vodafone's best Europe markets (UK and Germany) are likely to get better, Vodafone's worst European markets are likely to get worse." The above means that the expected improvement in the companys revenues could now be less than foreseen in the companys guidance, of between 1% and 4%.

Organic revenue growth in the second quarter came in at 1.3%.

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That is because Telefonica Spain has cut mobile pricing significantly (by between 35% and 50%) in the last 2 weeks. Thus, "Vodafone Spain's recent improvement in mobile number ports and net adds is likely to reverse, and Vodafone Spain mobile revenue erosion could deteriorate again (from -10.2% in mobile in Q2), a below-consensus trend we believe," comment these analysts.

Meanwhile, and in Italy, says Credit Suisse, "the MTR decision will lead to steeper MTR cuts in Italy from Q3 2012E, taking another 3-5pp off Vodafone Italy y/y growth in FYMar13E, all else being equal."

Credit Suisse has an outperform rating on shares of Vodafone and a price target of 168.8.

At 09:28AM shares of Vodafone are falling 0.1% to 168.65p.

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