Empirical Finance LLC Grows Holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Empirical Finance LLC raised its position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 3.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 155,020 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,795 shares during the period. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $6,720,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMCSA. GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of Comcast during the 3rd quarter worth about $895,000. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 16,371 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $726,000 after acquiring an additional 1,395 shares during the period. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 19.1% during the 3rd quarter. Silver Oak Securities Incorporated now owns 7,772 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $345,000 after acquiring an additional 1,246 shares during the period. Braun Stacey Associates Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Comcast during the 3rd quarter worth about $6,309,000. Finally, Allen Mooney & Barnes Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Comcast during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $522,000. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on CMCSA shares. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research report on Monday, May 13th. 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 report on Friday, April 26th. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $47.25 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 26th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 2nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $48.53.

Comcast Price Performance

NASDAQ:CMCSA traded up $0.55 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $38.30. 16,655,369 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,369,303. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $38.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $41.00. The firm has a market capitalization of $150.28 billion, a PE ratio of 10.10, a PEG ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 1.00. Comcast Co. has a 1-year low of $36.43 and a 1-year high of $47.46. The company has a current ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13.

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

Comcast Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be paid a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.24%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.80%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Comcast news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 3,176,923 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.19, for a total transaction of $10,134,384.37. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 2,000,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,380,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Comcast Company 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.