Benchmark Reaffirms “Buy” Rating for Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities researchers at Benchmark in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $60.00 price objective on the cable giant’s stock. Benchmark’s price target points to a potential upside of 39.53% from the stock’s current price.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Macquarie raised their target price on shares of Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Comcast from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Pivotal Research raised their price target on Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Scotiabank raised Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $47.75 to $48.00 in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Comcast currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.19.

Comcast Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of NASDAQ CMCSA opened at $43.00 on Tuesday. Comcast has a one year low of $36.43 and a one year high of $47.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $164.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.56, a PEG ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.00.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.06. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. The business had revenue of $32.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.78 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.08 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that Comcast will post 4.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in CMCSA. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Comcast by 41.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 28,016,389 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,214,512,000 after purchasing an additional 8,243,302 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Comcast by 7.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 115,703,280 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $5,015,737,000 after purchasing an additional 7,929,963 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Comcast by 5.4% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,420,328 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $4,904,647,000 after purchasing an additional 6,062,658 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in Comcast by 80.9% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 10,542,253 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $457,007,000 after purchasing an additional 4,714,586 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in Comcast by 92.1% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,722,620 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $339,223,000 after purchasing an additional 4,182,525 shares in the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.