Vodafone's dividend is too generous for its operating prospects, said Jefferies, downgrading the mobile operator's shares to 'hold' from 'buy'.
Vodafone "is structurally squeezed", Jefferies said, being neither a "national champion" deploying superfast fibre to customers homes, "nor pay TV leader nor remedy-taking challenger".
Jefferies said the "need to focus on debt reduction" means that even a large dividend cut "will not free up resources to invest more into projects that might enhance earnings growth organically" to deal with these structural inadequacies.
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