First Merchants Corp Reduces Holdings in Comcast Corporation $CMCSA

First Merchants Corp decreased its stake in shares of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 56.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 74,651 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 98,570 shares during the quarter. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Comcast were worth $2,231,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Robinson Value Management Ltd. raised its stake in Comcast by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Robinson Value Management Ltd. now owns 106,546 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $3,185,000 after buying an additional 6,366 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank boosted its position in Comcast by 2.5% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 958,350 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $28,645,000 after acquiring an additional 23,005 shares in the last quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. grew its holdings in shares of Comcast by 31.3% during the 4th quarter. Cullen Investment Group LTD. now owns 249,554 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $7,080,000 after acquiring an additional 59,553 shares during the period. Brucke Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of Comcast by 46.6% in the 4th quarter. Brucke Financial Inc. now owns 26,923 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $805,000 after acquiring an additional 8,554 shares in the last quarter. Finally, E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB raised its position in shares of Comcast by 5.8% in the 4th quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB now owns 164,651 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $4,921,000 after acquiring an additional 9,000 shares in the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently weighed in on CMCSA. Barclays set a $28.00 price target on Comcast and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. BNP Paribas Exane lowered Comcast from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $27.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Pivotal Research cut shares of Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Arete Research set a $23.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Comcast to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 14th. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.79.

Comcast Stock Down 1.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $28.73 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $103.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.35, a PEG ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.79. Comcast Corporation has a 12-month low of $25.75 and a 12-month high of $37.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The cable giant reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.09. Comcast had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 16.17%.The firm had revenue of $32.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $32.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.96 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Comcast Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be given a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 1st. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is 24.58%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Comcast news, CEO Michael J. Cavanagh sold 57,947 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.66, for a total transaction of $1,892,549.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 622,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,325,493.76. This trade represents a 8.52% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.32% of the company’s stock.

About Comcast

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is a diversified global media and technology company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its principal operations are organized around Comcast Cable, which provides broadband internet, video, voice and wireless services to residential and business customers in the United States under the Xfinity and Comcast Business brands, and NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment group that develops, produces and distributes content across broadcast and cable networks, film, and streaming platforms.

NBCUniversal’s assets include the NBC broadcast network, a portfolio of cable channels, Universal Pictures and other film and television production businesses, and the Peacock streaming service.