Comcast Corporation $CMCSA Stake Boosted by Park Avenue Securities LLC

Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its stake in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 24.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 160,303 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 31,842 shares during the quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $3,488,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Comcast by 10.2% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 40,864,921 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,173,232,000 after purchasing an additional 3,783,234 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Comcast by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 29,461,308 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $845,919,000 after purchasing an additional 507,097 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 4.9% during the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 13,592,149 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $390,231,000 after purchasing an additional 630,902 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 824.4% during the 1st quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 11,616,490 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $333,509,000 after purchasing an additional 10,359,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 5.7% during the 1st quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 10,666,200 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $306,227,000 after buying an additional 574,300 shares during the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CMCSA has been the subject of several recent research reports. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $27.00 price target (down from $32.00) on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on shares of Comcast from $39.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Comcast from $29.00 to $27.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, September 25th. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $26.00 target price on shares of Comcast and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Comcast from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 23rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $29.17.

Comcast Stock Performance

CMCSA opened at $23.22 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The company has a market cap of $82.45 billion, a PE ratio of 7.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.68. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $23.40 and a 200-day moving average of $26.09. Comcast Corporation has a 52-week low of $20.48 and a 52-week high of $32.85.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 22nd. The cable giant reported $1.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by $0.08. Comcast had a return on equity of 14.64% and a net margin of 9.20%. The business had revenue of $29.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $29.22 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.12 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Comcast Corporation will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 27th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 6th will be given a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 6th. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 41.77%.

Comcast Company Profile

Comcast Corporation is a global media and communications company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1963 as American Cable Systems, the company grew through the expansion of cable television and broadband services and adopted the Comcast name in 1969.

Through its Connectivity & Platforms businesses, Comcast provides residential and business customers with broadband internet, video, voice, mobile and related services. Its Xfinity brand offers internet, television, streaming and wireless products in the United States, while Comcast Business serves commercial and enterprise customers with connectivity, communications and technology solutions.