Commerce Bank Increases Stock Position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Commerce Bank raised its stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 0.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 447,787 shares of the cable giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,259 shares during the period. Commerce Bank’s holdings in Comcast were worth $19,412,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital World Investors grew its holdings in shares of Comcast by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 107,773,317 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $4,725,926,000 after purchasing an additional 15,625,543 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Comcast during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,542,988,000. Harris Associates L P increased its holdings in shares of Comcast by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 18,873,787 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $827,616,000 after buying an additional 1,854,671 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 3.8% in the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 15,688,650 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $687,947,000 after acquiring an additional 570,050 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in Comcast by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 15,100,752 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $654,617,000 after acquiring an additional 408,425 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on CMCSA. BNP Paribas lowered Comcast from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $34.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on shares of Comcast from $55.00 to $53.00 in a report on Friday, April 5th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $48.53.

Comcast Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CMCSA traded down $0.22 on Wednesday, hitting $37.29. 7,789,302 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,323,633. The company has a market cap of $146.31 billion, a PE ratio of 9.92, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.52 and a 200-day simple moving average of $41.05. Comcast Co. has a 52 week low of $36.43 and a 52 week high of $47.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The cable giant reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.06. Comcast had a net margin of 12.64% and a return on equity of 20.10%. The business had revenue of $30.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $29.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.92 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.21 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 3rd. Comcast’s payout ratio is 32.80%.

Insider Transactions at Comcast

In other news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 3,176,923 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.19, for a total transaction of $10,134,384.37. Following the sale, the insider now owns 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,380,000. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

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.