Bank of America Downgrades Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to Neutral

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) was downgraded by investment analysts at Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a $38.00 price objective on the cable giant’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $50.00. Bank of America‘s price target indicates a potential upside of 12.89% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Macquarie reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $42.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a report on Monday, January 6th. Scotiabank raised Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $47.75 to $48.00 in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Comcast from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Rosenblatt Securities reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Comcast from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Nine 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Comcast currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.00.

Comcast Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of CMCSA stock opened at $33.66 on Friday. Comcast has a 1 year low of $32.50 and a 1 year high of $47.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $128.80 billion, a PE ratio of 9.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.01. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $38.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $40.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. As a group, research analysts expect that Comcast will post 4.25 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Comcast

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Comcast

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Comcast by 77.2% in the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 14,182 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $555,000 after purchasing an additional 6,179 shares during the period. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. raised its holdings in Comcast by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 14,581 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $609,000 after acquiring an additional 645 shares during the period. AMF Tjanstepension AB lifted its position in Comcast by 18.9% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 832,594 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $34,810,000 after acquiring an additional 132,442 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in Comcast by 5.5% during the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 786,946 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $32,871,000 after acquiring an additional 41,061 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew 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 valued at $120,739,000 after purchasing an additional 1,963,246 shares during the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.