Olstein Capital Management L.P. Cuts Stock Position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Olstein Capital Management L.P. cut its holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 15.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 90,000 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 17,000 shares during the quarter. Olstein Capital Management L.P.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $3,902,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Saxon Interests Inc. increased its position in Comcast by 8.9% during the first quarter. Saxon Interests Inc. now owns 13,375 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $580,000 after acquiring an additional 1,089 shares during the last quarter. Naviter Wealth LLC bought a new position in Comcast during the first quarter valued at $721,000. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC increased its position in Comcast by 6.4% during the first quarter. Measured Wealth Private Client Group LLC now owns 11,426 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $495,000 after acquiring an additional 689 shares during the last quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Comcast by 20.1% during the first quarter. Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 669,393 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $29,018,000 after purchasing an additional 112,134 shares during the period. Finally, MV Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Comcast by 11.3% during the first quarter. MV Capital Management Inc. now owns 8,166 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $354,000 after purchasing an additional 827 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on CMCSA shares. Macquarie lowered their target price on shares of Comcast from $43.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of Comcast from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Comcast from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $34.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, June 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $48.53.

Insider Activity at Comcast

In other news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 3,176,923 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.19, for a total value of $10,134,384.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now 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 link. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Comcast Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CMCSA traded down $0.11 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $38.05. 7,657,993 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,520,629. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.62 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $41.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.59 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The stock has a market cap of $149.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 1.00. Comcast Co. has a fifty-two week low of $36.43 and a fifty-two week high of $47.46.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The cable giant reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $30.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $29.83 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 12.64%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.92 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Comcast Co. will post 4.21 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The company 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 dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.26%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 3rd. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.80%.

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.