Evercore ISI Upgrades Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to Strong-Buy

Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to a strong-buy rating in a report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also issued reports on the company. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp raised their price target on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com cut Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Scotiabank raised Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $47.75 to $48.00 in a report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.19.

Comcast Trading Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $43.47 on Thursday. Comcast has a one year low of $36.43 and a one year high of $47.11. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.69, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $32.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.78 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.81% and a net margin of 11.92%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Comcast will post 4.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 33.33%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of CMCSA. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Comcast in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast in the second quarter worth $27,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Comcast by 204.7% during the 2nd quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 522 shares during the period. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 365.4% during the 3rd quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 726 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new position in Comcast in the 3rd quarter worth $30,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

About Comcast

Comcast Corporation operates as a media and technology company worldwide. It operates through Residential Connectivity & Platforms, Business Services Connectivity, Media, Studios, and Theme Parks segments. The Residential Connectivity & Platforms segment provides residential broadband and wireless connectivity services, residential and business video services, sky-branded entertainment television networks, and advertising.