Seaport Res Ptn Downgrades Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to Hold

Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Monday morning, Zacks.com reports.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on CMCSA. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an outperform rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup lowered their target price on Comcast from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 29th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on Comcast from $50.00 to $47.25 and set a sector perform rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Comcast from $47.00 to $43.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Macquarie lowered their target price on Comcast from $43.00 to $40.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Comcast currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $48.83.

Comcast Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CMCSA opened at $38.48 on Monday. Comcast has a fifty-two week low of $36.43 and a fifty-two week high of $47.46. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.79 and its 200 day simple moving average is $41.49. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The stock has a market cap of $150.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.18, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.00.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The cable giant reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.06. Comcast had a net margin of 12.64% and a return on equity of 20.10%. The business had revenue of $30.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $29.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.92 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Comcast will post 4.21 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 3rd. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.80%.

Insider Activity

In other news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 3,176,923 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.19, for a total transaction of $10,134,384.37. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 2,000,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,380,000. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Comcast

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. SRN Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 5.1% in the 1st quarter. SRN Advisors LLC now owns 19,966 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $866,000 after purchasing an additional 962 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 666,020 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $28,872,000 after purchasing an additional 11,417 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 71.0% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 198,430 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $8,602,000 after purchasing an additional 82,357 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 236.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 1,112,440 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $48,224,000 after purchasing an additional 782,029 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invst LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Comcast in the 1st quarter valued at $1,220,000. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Comcast Company Profile

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.