Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twenty research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, nine have assigned a buy recommendation and two have issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $43.83.

A number of brokerages have commented on CMCSA. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Comcast from $47.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Comcast from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on Comcast from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Comcast from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Bank of America cut Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, January 31st.

Insider Transactions at Comcast

In other news, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 25,537 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 534,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,779,218.91. The trade was a 4.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Brian L. Roberts sold 234,464 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.66, for a total transaction of $10,002,234.24. Following the completion of the sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Comcast

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CMCSA. Promus Capital LLC acquired a new position in Comcast during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Winch Advisory Services LLC raised its position in Comcast by 269.9% during the fourth quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 688 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 502 shares in the last quarter. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in Comcast during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Comcast during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new position in Comcast during the third quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Comcast Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of CMCSA opened at $36.26 on Monday. Comcast has a 1 year low of $32.50 and a 1 year high of $45.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.58 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.59. The stock has a market cap of $137.08 billion, a PE ratio of 8.74, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.00.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.08. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 13.09%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Comcast will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.64%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 2nd. This is a boost from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 31.81%.

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.