Everett Harris & Co. CA Raises Position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Everett Harris & Co. CA increased its holdings in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 7.7% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,687,406 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 121,279 shares during the period. Comcast comprises 1.1% of Everett Harris & Co. CA’s holdings, making the stock its 23rd largest holding. Everett Harris & Co. CA’s holdings in Comcast were worth $73,993,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMCSA. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. raised its position in shares of Comcast by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Ironwood Wealth Management LLC. now owns 15,458 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $724,000 after purchasing an additional 363 shares during the last quarter. United Bank raised its holdings in shares of Comcast by 17.4% in the first quarter. United Bank now owns 37,271 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,745,000 after buying an additional 5,532 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 29.6% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 4,063,697 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $190,261,000 after buying an additional 928,627 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Comcast by 104.4% during the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 3,472 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $163,000 after buying an additional 1,773 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Western Trust Bank acquired a new stake in Comcast during the 1st quarter worth about $482,000. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Comcast

In related news, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 114,749 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.10, for a total value of $5,289,928.90. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 1.18% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CMCSA. Evercore ISI restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of Comcast from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, January 26th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Redburn Atlantic cut shares of Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $50.00 to $44.00 in a report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Comcast from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 30th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Comcast presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.68.

Comcast Price Performance

Comcast stock traded up $0.59 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $43.07. The company had a trading volume of 14,106,200 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,272,707. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.60. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $43.08 and its 200 day simple moving average is $43.22. The firm has a market capitalization of $171.07 billion, a PE ratio of 11.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.98. Comcast Co. has a 1-year low of $36.35 and a 1-year high of $47.46.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The cable giant reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.80 by $0.04. Comcast had a net margin of 12.66% and a return on equity of 19.75%. The business had revenue of $31.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.41 billion. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Comcast Co. will post 4.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This is a positive change from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 2nd. Comcast’s payout ratio is 31.18%.

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.