Exeter Financial LLC Purchases 1,200 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Exeter Financial LLC boosted its position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 1.8% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 68,239 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,200 shares during the quarter. Exeter Financial LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $2,561,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Fairscale Capital LLC acquired a new position in Comcast during the second quarter worth $26,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in shares of Comcast in the 3rd quarter valued at about $30,000. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Comcast by 365.4% in the 3rd quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 726 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 570 shares during the last quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Comcast by 220.3% during the third quarter. Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC now owns 759 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 522 shares during the period. Finally, Dunhill Financial LLC raised its stake in Comcast by 54.8% in the third quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 814 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 288 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Comcast news, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 25,537 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.59, for a total transaction of $1,087,620.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 534,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,779,218.91. This trade represents a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Brian L. Roberts sold 234,464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.66, for a total transaction of $10,002,234.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,669,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $284,539,128.48. This represents a 3.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Comcast Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of CMCSA stock opened at $36.45 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $139.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.80, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.01. Comcast Co. has a twelve month low of $36.24 and a twelve month high of $47.11. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $40.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.25.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.06. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.81% and a net margin of 11.92%. The company had revenue of $32.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Comcast Co. will post 4.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.40%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.33%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CMCSA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Comcast from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Comcast from $46.00 to $45.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley downgraded Comcast from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $48.00 to $45.00 in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $47.75 to $48.00 in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their target price on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Comcast presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.33.

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.