Comcast Corporation $CMCSA Shares Sold by Smith Moore & CO.

Smith Moore & CO. decreased its position in shares of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 69.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 8,746 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 19,677 shares during the quarter. Smith Moore & CO.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $261,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in Comcast by 4.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 180,687,135 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $5,677,190,000 after buying an additional 7,917,335 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox increased its position in Comcast by 1.2% during the third quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 112,567,918 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $3,536,884,000 after buying an additional 1,295,598 shares during the period. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in Comcast by 46.1% during the third quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 33,706,330 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,059,053,000 after buying an additional 10,633,206 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in Comcast by 2.9% during the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 24,104,774 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $757,372,000 after buying an additional 686,520 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in Comcast by 12.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 22,047,063 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $692,719,000 after buying an additional 2,470,742 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Michael J. Cavanagh sold 57,947 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.66, for a total transaction of $1,892,549.02. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 622,336 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,325,493.76. This represents a 8.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.32% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on CMCSA shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Comcast from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 16th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered their target price on Comcast from $26.00 to $25.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Comcast to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 14th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their target price on Comcast from $35.25 to $34.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 1st. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.81.

Comcast Stock Up 0.6%

Comcast stock opened at $28.30 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $30.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $29.15. Comcast Corporation has a 1-year low of $25.75 and a 1-year high of $36.66. The company has a market cap of $101.82 billion, a PE ratio of 5.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The cable giant reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.09. Comcast had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 16.17%.The firm had revenue of $32.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $32.35 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.96 earnings per share. Comcast’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Comcast Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 1st. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.58%.

About Comcast

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is a diversified global media and technology company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its principal operations are organized around Comcast Cable, which provides broadband internet, video, voice and wireless services to residential and business customers in the United States under the Xfinity and Comcast Business brands, and NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment group that develops, produces and distributes content across broadcast and cable networks, film, and streaming platforms.

NBCUniversal’s assets include the NBC broadcast network, a portfolio of cable channels, Universal Pictures and other film and television production businesses, and the Peacock streaming service.