StockNews.com Upgrades Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to “Strong-Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning.

CMCSA has been the subject of several other research reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on Comcast from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank raised shares of Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $47.75 to $48.00 in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Comcast from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $48.00 to $45.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.06.

Comcast Stock Performance

Shares of CMCSA stock opened at $37.93 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $145.14 billion, a PE ratio of 10.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. Comcast has a 52 week low of $36.43 and a 52 week high of $47.11. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $41.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.26.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released 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. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. The business had revenue of $32.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Comcast will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

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 issued 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 3.27%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.33%.

Insider Activity

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Comcast

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMCSA. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB boosted its stake in shares of Comcast by 55,334.5% during the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 8,273,052 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $345,565,000 after purchasing an additional 8,258,128 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Comcast by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,420,328 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $4,904,647,000 after buying an additional 6,062,658 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Comcast by 92.1% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,722,620 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $339,223,000 after buying an additional 4,182,525 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in Comcast by 530.5% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,429,298 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $143,242,000 after acquiring an additional 2,885,370 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Darsana Capital Partners LP increased its position in shares of Comcast by 26.7% during the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 9,500,000 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $372,020,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000,000 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.