Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Earns Neutral Rating from Macquarie

Macquarie reissued their neutral rating on shares of Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) in a research note released on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a $42.00 target price on the cable giant’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on CMCSA. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on shares of Comcast from $54.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Comcast to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. StockNews.com downgraded Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on Comcast from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Scotiabank raised Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $47.75 to $48.00 in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.33.

Comcast Stock Performance

CMCSA stock opened at $37.49 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. Comcast has a 12-month low of $36.43 and a 12-month high of $47.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $143.46 billion, a PE ratio of 10.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.01.

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

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.31%. Comcast’s payout ratio is 33.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Comcast news, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 25,537 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.59, for a total transaction of $1,087,620.83. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 534,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,779,218.91. This trade represents a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian L. Roberts sold 234,464 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.66, for a total transaction of $10,002,234.24. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6,669,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $284,539,128.48. The trade was a 3.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CMCSA. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Comcast by 5.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,420,328 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $4,904,647,000 after purchasing an additional 6,062,658 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Comcast by 2.7% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 38,329,384 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,500,722,000 after buying an additional 1,000,626 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 31,871,235 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,331,192,000 after acquiring an additional 416,759 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in Comcast by 6.0% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 30,364,136 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,268,310,000 after acquiring an additional 1,717,762 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board increased its stake in Comcast by 5.4% during the third quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 15,983,230 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $667,620,000 after acquiring an additional 822,936 shares during the last quarter. 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.