Vodacom Group (JSE: VOD)

150.91 now, testing 150 support.

150.91 now, holding that 150 level.

what happens to my VOD shares if the company cuts the dividend, does the price just drop?

SA mobile subs are flat, everyone's already got a phone. where's the growth coming from, actually asking.

A dividend is when the company shares some of its profit with people who own the shares, kind of like a bonus for holding them. Vodacom pays dividends a couple of times a year if they're doing well, so you get paid just for owning the share, separate from hoping the price goes up.

Vodacom's basically printing money from people's phone bills every month, but the question is whether there's enough growth left in SA when everyone's already got a SIM card. At 153.22 it feels like you're paying for a mature business that's not going anywhere fast.

@firsttime_Frans VOD pays a dividend every quarter, so if you buy at 152.09 you get cash back even if the price doesn't move. That's a decent start for learning how shares work.

@sipho_satrix_saver the ETF does the heavy lifting for you though, spreads the risk. VOD's one company.

@bayman_jse but what happens to those millions of customers if load-shedding keeps getting worse, won't that hurt the network?

Vodacom's got more staying power than the Sharks this season, shem.

is VOD a better buy than just sticking with my R300 a month into the Satrix one

Is VOD a good first share to buy or should I start with something safer?

VOD at 152.09 is looking reasonable. People aren't using their phones less, and Vodacom's still got millions of customers across the country, so the cash keeps coming in. Good day to top up if you reckon the rand weakness was just noise.

Is Vodacom a better buy than MTN if I'm using both their services anyway?

Do you think the data money franco mentioned actually makes up for how many customers are cutting their bills because of load-shedding though? Not saying it's falling apart, just wondering if the growth's real or if people are just using less overall.

@franco_cape ngl the data play is lekker solid right now

vodacom makes money charging you every month for your phone line and data, then twice a year they hand some of that profit back to the people who own shares, that's called a dividend. so you own a piece of the company and it pays you for it.

@franco_cape isn't the dividend getting squeezed though with all the infrastructure spending they need to do?

Vodacom's basically printing money from data now, everyone's on their phones constantly and the network's solid. At 152.09 it's not cheap but the dividend keeps coming through which helps, especially with load-shedding making people rely more on mobile internet.

If you want to start with VOD, you don't need much. Open an account on EasyEquities or your bank's investment app, put in R500 or R1000, and you can buy a share or two, the fees come to maybe R10 to R20 depending where you go. A "buy" order just means you're telling them what price you'll pay and they find a seller for you when it matches, takes a few minutes on the JSE.