Vodafone (VOD 0.81%) can't really be accused of phoning it in for its first half of the year. In its H1 2014, the company posted revenue of just over 22.0 billion pounds sterling ($35.1 billion), which bettered the 21.8 billion pounds ($34.7 billion) in the same period of 2012. The attributable bottom line shifted to a profit of just over 18 billion pounds ($28.7 billion; 0.321 pounds per diluted share, or $0.51), against a shortfall of 1.9 billion in the year-ago half ($3.0 billion; 0.0881 pounds, or $0.14).
Much of the bottom-line improvement was due to the nearly 14.7 billion pounds ($23.4 billion) in deferred tax recognition stemming from investments in Europe, and from the company's now-divested stake in America's Verizon. Vodafone's adjusted operating profit for H1 came in at 5.7 billion pounds ($9.1 billion), a slide from H1 2013's 6.2 billion pounds ($9.9 billion).
Analysts were expecting a top line of 21.8 billion pounds ($34.7 billion) and an adjusted operating profit of 5.6 billion pounds ($8.9 billion).
Vodafone also declared an interim dividend of 0.00353 pounds ($0.01) per share. It said that it anticipates paying a total dividend of 0.11 pounds ($0.18) per share for the year.
The company reiterated its selected guidance for the entirety of fiscal 2014. It believes it will hit its goal of posting an adjusted operating profit of roughly 5 billion pounds ($8 billion), and showing free cash flow of 4.5 billion to 5.0 billion pounds ($7.2 billion to $8 billion).
