Comcast Corporation $CMCSA Stock: Welch & Forbes LLC Trims Stake

Welch & Forbes LLC cut its holdings in shares of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 16.9% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 111,022 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 22,528 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $2,416,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Comcast by 10.2% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 40,864,921 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,173,232,000 after buying an additional 3,783,234 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Comcast by 1.8% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,461,308 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $845,919,000 after acquiring an additional 507,097 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in Comcast by 4.9% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 13,592,149 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $390,231,000 after acquiring an additional 630,902 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its stake in Comcast by 824.4% in the first quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 11,616,490 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $333,509,000 after acquiring an additional 10,359,800 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in Comcast by 5.7% in the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 10,666,200 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $306,227,000 after acquiring an additional 574,300 shares during the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Comcast from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, September 25th. Bank of America reissued a “buy” rating and set a $35.00 price objective (down from $37.00) on shares of Comcast in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price objective on Comcast from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $26.00 target price on Comcast and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $27.00 target price (down from $32.00) on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $28.77.

Comcast Stock Up 1.0%

Comcast stock opened at $24.75 on Wednesday. Comcast Corporation has a 1-year low of $20.48 and a 1-year high of $32.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $87.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $23.05 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.95.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The cable giant reported $1.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $29.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $29.22 billion. Comcast had a net margin of 9.20% and a return on equity of 14.64%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.12 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Comcast Corporation will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 27th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 6th will be given a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 6th. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.3%. Comcast’s payout ratio is 41.77%.

Comcast Company Profile

Comcast Corporation is a media and telecommunications company whose businesses include broadband, cable television, wireless and voice services, as well as entertainment, news and theme parks. Its Xfinity brand offers residential and business connectivity and entertainment services in the United States. Through NBCUniversal, Comcast operates the NBC broadcast network, cable channels, the Peacock streaming service, Universal Pictures and Universal theme parks. The company also owns Sky, which provides television, broadband and related services in the United Kingdom and other European markets.