Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Coverage Initiated at The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) in a research note published on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $44.00 price target on the cable giant’s stock.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on CMCSA. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Comcast from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Benchmark reaffirmed a buy rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Macquarie reduced their price objective on Comcast from $43.00 to $40.00 and set a neutral rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $43.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, BNP Paribas cut shares of Comcast from a neutral rating to an underperform rating and set a $34.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, June 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Comcast has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $48.62.

Comcast Price Performance

NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $39.16 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $153.65 billion, a PE ratio of 10.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.00. Comcast has a 52 week low of $36.43 and a 52 week high of $47.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $38.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $41.39.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The cable giant reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.06. Comcast had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 12.64%. The business had revenue of $30.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $29.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.92 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Comcast will post 4.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.17%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.80%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 3,176,923 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.19, for a total transaction of $10,134,384.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 2,000,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,380,000. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 1.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Comcast

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bright Futures Wealth Management LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $480,000. Quent Capital LLC increased its holdings in Comcast by 3.0% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 16,795 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $728,000 after buying an additional 485 shares during the last quarter. SRN Advisors LLC raised its stake in Comcast by 5.1% in the first quarter. SRN Advisors LLC now owns 19,966 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $866,000 after buying an additional 962 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC lifted its holdings in Comcast by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 666,020 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $28,872,000 after buying an additional 11,417 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Comcast by 71.0% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 198,430 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $8,602,000 after acquiring an additional 82,357 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

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.