Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Shares Bought by Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC

Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC grew its position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 199,685 shares of the cable giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,103 shares during the period. Knights of Columbus Asset Advisors LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $8,756,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Comcast in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,798,173,000. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Comcast by 121,265.4% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 25,530,426 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $892,799,000 after purchasing an additional 25,509,390 shares in the last quarter. Morgan Stanley boosted its holdings in Comcast by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 53,653,778 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,876,273,000 after buying an additional 7,084,451 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in Comcast by 62.6% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 15,271,853 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $715,028,000 after buying an additional 5,880,050 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in Comcast by 535.8% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 4,754,976 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $222,628,000 after buying an additional 4,007,100 shares in the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on CMCSA. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on Comcast from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup upped their target price on Comcast from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com cut shares of Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $50.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.74.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 114,749 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.10, for a total value of $5,289,928.90. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.18% of the company’s stock.

Comcast Trading Up 0.8 %

Shares of CMCSA stock traded up $0.31 on Friday, hitting $39.93. The stock had a trading volume of 8,985,880 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,456,318. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $41.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.74. Comcast Co. has a 1 year low of $36.38 and a 1 year high of $47.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.60 and a quick ratio of 0.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $158.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.72, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 0.98.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The cable giant reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.04. Comcast had a net margin of 12.66% and a return on equity of 19.75%. The company had revenue of $31.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.41 billion. Analysts anticipate that Comcast Co. will post 4.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast 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.