Russell Investments Group Ltd. Acquires 21,422 Shares of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its holdings in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 0.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 5,716,939 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 21,422 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. owned approximately 0.15% of Comcast worth $210,776,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast in the 1st quarter valued at $940,015,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Comcast by 1,959.3% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,228,732 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $488,140,000 after purchasing an additional 12,586,329 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in Comcast by 8.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 141,680,277 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $5,317,167,000 after buying an additional 11,255,683 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its position in Comcast by 724.7% during the 1st quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 10,160,649 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $374,927,000 after buying an additional 8,928,641 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Comcast by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 50,320,446 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,890,027,000 after buying an additional 5,402,377 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Comcast Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $31.41 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $115.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.19, a PEG ratio of 1.90 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.91. Comcast Corporation has a one year low of $31.03 and a one year high of $45.31. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.49 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.88.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The cable giant reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.07. Comcast had a return on equity of 18.86% and a net margin of 18.44%. The company had revenue of $30.31 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $29.81 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.21 EPS. Comcast’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Comcast Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be given a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 1st. Comcast’s payout ratio is 21.82%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CMCSA has been the subject of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price target on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $40.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Rosenblatt Securities raised their price objective on shares of Comcast from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of Comcast from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Wells Fargo & Company downgraded shares of Comcast from an “equal weight” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $37.00 to $31.00 in a report on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Comcast in a report on Friday, July 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $40.73.

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.