Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.31

Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, July 18th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.31 per share by the cable giant on Wednesday, October 23rd. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.97%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 2nd.

Comcast has increased its dividend by an average of 8.2% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 17 consecutive years. Comcast has a payout ratio of 27.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Comcast to earn $4.49 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.6%.

Comcast Stock Up 0.3 %

CMCSA stock opened at $41.77 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $39.73 and a 200 day moving average price of $39.56. Comcast has a 12 month low of $36.43 and a 12 month high of $47.11. The company has a market cap of $163.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.66.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The cable giant reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $29.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.02 billion. Comcast had a net margin of 12.46% and a return on equity of 20.17%. Comcast’s quarterly revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Comcast will post 4.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CMCSA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Pivotal Research cut their price objective on shares of Comcast from $48.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 24th. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Comcast in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. They set a “buy” rating and a $44.00 price objective for the company. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Comcast from $41.00 to $40.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and nine have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $45.58.

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.