Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Shares Acquired by Sonora Investment Management Group LLC

Sonora Investment Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 8.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 8,169 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 670 shares during the quarter. Sonora Investment Management Group LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $307,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 55,334.5% during the 3rd quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 8,273,052 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $345,565,000 after acquiring an additional 8,258,128 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in Comcast by 5.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,420,328 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $4,904,647,000 after purchasing an additional 6,062,658 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 530.5% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,429,298 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $143,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,885,370 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of Comcast by 211.7% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,890,571 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $120,739,000 after buying an additional 1,963,246 shares during the period. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 31.7% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 7,613,977 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $318,036,000 after buying an additional 1,833,453 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on CMCSA shares. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Comcast from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. StockNews.com raised shares of Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Comcast from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Finally, Bank of America cut Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $50.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Friday. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Comcast presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.00.

Comcast Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of Comcast stock opened at $33.66 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $128.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.05, a PEG ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.01. Comcast Co. has a twelve month low of $32.50 and a twelve month high of $47.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.11.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.08. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.81% and a net margin of 11.92%. Equities research analysts forecast that Comcast Co. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.92%. This is a positive change from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 2nd. Comcast’s payout ratio is presently 33.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Comcast

In other Comcast news, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 25,537 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.59, for a total transaction of $1,087,620.83. Following the transaction, the president now owns 534,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,779,218.91. This trade represents a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian L. Roberts sold 234,464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.66, for a total transaction of $10,002,234.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,669,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $284,539,128.48. This represents a 3.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Comcast 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.