This article has been adapted from our sister site across the pond, Fool UK.
With Friday's first-quarter interim figures, Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), the world's largest mobile phone operator, reported a return to organic service revenue growth -- OK, it's only 1.1%, but it's the right direction, and it confirms the market's expectations.
Post-recession growth
Overall revenue rose 4.8%, to reach £11.3bn, led by the growing popularity of iPhones and other smartphone communications in the U.K. and Germany, and by further overseas growth, particularly in India and Turkey. In fact, Vodafone's operations in Turkey netted their highest quarter revenue to date.
Chief Executive Vittorio Collao said: "These are the first quarterly results to show service revenue growth since the global recession impacted."
It also looks as if Vodafone's lengthy tussle with the U.K.'s tax authorities is drawing to a close, with the company agreeing to pay £1.25bn, which is less than expected, to settle all its disputed taxation demands. £800m of the total will be paid this year, with the rest following over the next five years.
Shareholder discontent
But despite these good figures, Vodafone's board will be expecting some turbulence at the company's forthcoming AGM, after a revolt from the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, a major shareholder, aims to unseat the company's chairman, Sir John Bond, and John Buchanan, his deputy.
The group alleges that Vodafone suffers from structural weaknesses and poor capital allocation, and that this has led to a poor share price. That feeling is echoed among a growing number of shareholders, who believe that the company's market capitalization is lower than it should be, and does not match analysts' valuations of its parts.
Cheap shares
A number of Motley Fool writers have been calling Vodafone shares cheap for some time, and with a current forward P/E of under 10 and a forward dividend yield of over 6%, that opinion appears to be unchanged.
Of course, a company whose shares are attractively priced to new investors is a company that isn't achieving its potential for its existing owners, and the growing shareholder discontent surely has some merit. If you have shares, you might see some action after the AGM aimed at boosting the valuation of the company. And if you don't? Well, now might be a good time to get some while they're cheap. And keep taking the dividends.
More from Fool U.K.'s Alan Oscroft:
Brian Richards prepared this article for publication on Fool.com. Brian does not own shares of any companies mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
