Vodafone Carnage

It is hard to believe that a company of Vodafone's calibre can drop over 10% in one day but that is precisely what happened today. Aaaggh! Was the interim report really that bad? Revenue growth is slow and margins are decreasing but investors knew that anyway. More dividend and less share buy backs would be nice but then Vodafone like the buy backs because if necessary they can stop them to fund a big aquisition wheras they can't lower the dividends without a big backlash.

Either way investors were not impressed with a 15% dividend rise and over 2 billion shares changed hands in a huge institutional sell off. Maybe some investors have lost patience with the static share price. It is now once again lower than the price I first bought it at almost two years ago.

I guess this could be seen as a buying opportunity but I have not had much success this year with catching falling knives and I already have a big stake in VOD so I will stay out. I will probably be a slow hike back to 150p but I will have to be patient and wait for a chance to sell this underperformer.

It is impossible not to like the amount of cash that Vodafone generates but growth is slow and competition is high so I will reduce my position when I get the chance.