Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Upgraded at Evercore ISI

Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on CMCSA. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of Comcast from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Comcast has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.19.

Comcast Stock Down 0.1 %

CMCSA stock opened at $43.47 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $166.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $41.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. Comcast has a 12 month low of $36.43 and a 12 month high of $47.11.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Comcast will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be paid a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.85%. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 33.33%.

Institutional Trading of Comcast

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 5.4% in the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted 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 valued at $1,500,722,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000,626 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted 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 purchasing an additional 416,759 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 6.0% in the 3rd 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 valued at $1,268,310,000 after purchasing an additional 1,717,762 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 15,983,230 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $667,620,000 after purchasing an additional 822,936 shares during the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is 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.