Center for Financial Planning Inc. Raises Stake in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Center for Financial Planning Inc. raised its stake in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 12.9% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 10,421 shares of the cable giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,187 shares during the period. Center for Financial Planning Inc.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $385,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CMCSA. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast in the fourth quarter worth about $743,681,000. Mission Wealth Management LP raised its stake in Comcast by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 43,509 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,633,000 after purchasing an additional 3,344 shares in the last quarter. Aviva PLC raised its stake in Comcast by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 2,327,702 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $87,359,000 after purchasing an additional 156,986 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Comcast by 7.1% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 34,101,077 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,279,813,000 after purchasing an additional 2,270,186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Argentarii LLC purchased a new stake in Comcast in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $769,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CMCSA has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut shares of Comcast from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $37.00 to $31.00 in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $37.00 price target on Comcast in a research report on Friday, April 25th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on Comcast from $47.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut Comcast from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $31.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.10.

Comcast Price Performance

CMCSA opened at $34.53 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.65. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $34.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $128.92 billion, a PE ratio of 8.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.95. Comcast Corporation has a 52-week low of $31.44 and a 52-week high of $45.31.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The cable giant reported $1.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $29.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $29.82 billion. Comcast had a net margin of 12.72% and a return on equity of 19.70%. Comcast’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.04 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that Comcast Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 2nd will be paid a $0.33 dividend. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.82%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 2nd. Comcast’s payout ratio is presently 32.43%.

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.