Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 5,959 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Kentucky Retirement Systems cut its stake in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 2.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 294,958 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 5,959 shares during the quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in Comcast were worth $11,551,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of CMCSA. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Comcast during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,056,000. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 11,304,304 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $495,694,000 after purchasing an additional 368,685 shares during the last quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Comcast by 4.5% during the 2nd quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 36,027 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,411,000 after purchasing an additional 1,550 shares during the period. First Hawaiian Bank raised its position in Comcast by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 191,846 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $7,513,000 after purchasing an additional 15,664 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gilbert & Cook Inc. lifted its holdings in Comcast by 10.3% in the 4th quarter. Gilbert & Cook Inc. now owns 15,613 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $685,000 after buying an additional 1,459 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on CMCSA. StockNews.com cut Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price objective on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. BNP Paribas cut shares of Comcast from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $34.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Finally, Pivotal Research decreased their price target on shares of Comcast from $48.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $45.78.

Comcast Stock Up 1.4 %

CMCSA stock opened at $39.82 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. The business has a 50 day moving average of $39.48 and a 200 day moving average of $39.67. Comcast Co. has a twelve month low of $36.43 and a twelve month high of $47.11. The firm has a market cap of $156.24 billion, a PE ratio of 10.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.03 and a beta of 1.01.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The cable giant reported $1.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $29.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.02 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 20.17% and a net margin of 12.46%. The company’s revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.13 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Comcast Co. will post 4.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be paid a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.11%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.80%.

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.