Like many other FTSE 100 stocks, Vodafone (LSE:VOD) shares have enjoyed some exciting momentum in 2025. Since January, the telecoms giant has seen its share price climb by just over 37%. And anyone who’s been reinvesting dividends along the way has enjoyed an even bigger return of 44%.
That means a £5,000 investment just shy of 12 months ago is now worth roughly £7,200. But this might be just the tip of the iceberg when looking at the latest analyst forecasts.
So how much money could investors make by this time next year if they buy Vodafone shares today?
Latest Vodafone forecasts
While there are a lot of institutional investors following this business, Deutsche Bank currently stands out as one of the most bullish. In fact, its team of analysts just recently raised their share price target from 135p to 140p. And if this projection’s accurate, that means a massive 49.8% share price surge could be coming in 2026.
This aggressive prediction’s based on a few factors. But mostly Deutsche expects a continuation of management’s self-help initiatives, driving further operational improvements as well as superior cash flows.
While many of these programmes are still being executed, the positive impacts have already begun to materialise in Vodafone’s financials. The acquisition of Three UK has, alongside strong performance across its services, helped expand its top line by 7.3% in the six months leading to September.
But more crucially, during the second quarter of its 2026 fiscal year (ending in March), its long-troubled core German business has finally seen services return to growth. And subsequently, a €500m share buyback scheme has been launched, while full-year guidance was confirmed to land towards the upper end of previous expectations.
Therefore, it’s not so surprising to see Vodafone shares outperform in 2025. And assuming management maintains its current pace, Deutsche’s hunch that this momentum could continue into 2026 might not be far off from reality.
What investors need to watch
Despite its bullish stance, Deutsche’s analysts have nonetheless highlighted several key risks and challenges that could compromise its share price target.
As with any turnaround strategy, good execution’s crucial. So far, management seems to have avoided making any big blunders. But that’s not guaranteed to continue.
The acquisition of Three UK is expected to deliver several significant cost-saving synergies. Yet these may ultimately fail to materialise, or could end up getting offset by unanticipated integration challenges.
Meanwhile, if the divestment of its remaining non-core assets stalls, the group’s deleveraging progress could follow suit, interfering with management’s efforts to reduce complexity, potentially causing key near-term milestones to be missed.
In other words, there are still plenty of risks surrounding this business. But for investors looking to diversify into the telecommunications space with a long-term turnaround opportunity, Vodafone could warrant a deeper dive. But it’s not the only FTSE 100 stock I’m paying close attention to right now.
