Comcast Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.31 (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 15th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.31 per share by the cable giant on Wednesday, July 24th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 3rd.

Comcast has increased its dividend by an average of 8.2% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 17 consecutive years. Comcast has a payout ratio of 27.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Comcast to earn $4.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.7%.

Comcast Stock Performance

Shares of Comcast stock opened at $39.16 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $153.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.36, a PEG ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a current ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $38.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $41.37. Comcast has a 1-year low of $36.43 and a 1-year high of $47.46.

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on CMCSA. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Friday, April 26th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Comcast from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Macquarie dropped their price target on shares of Comcast from $43.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Comcast has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $48.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Comcast news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 3,176,923 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.19, for a total value of $10,134,384.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 2,000,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,380,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.