Altfest L J & Co. Inc. Cuts Holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Altfest L J & Co. Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 26.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 16,469 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 5,809 shares during the period. Altfest L J & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $722,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Comcast by 1.7% in the 2nd quarter. Shepherd Financial Partners LLC now owns 53,491 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $2,223,000 after buying an additional 909 shares during the period. Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Comcast during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $8,868,000. CIC Wealth LLC raised its position in shares of Comcast by 42.8% during the third quarter. CIC Wealth LLC now owns 8,800 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $390,000 after buying an additional 2,638 shares during the last quarter. Orion Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Comcast in the 3rd quarter worth $90,000. Finally, Camarda Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast in the second quarter worth about $1,381,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CMCSA has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Comcast from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. Citigroup upped their price objective on Comcast from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 30th. Rosenblatt Securities boosted their target price on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, December 22nd. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Redburn Atlantic lowered Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $50.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.68.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Comcast Trading Up 0.4 %

CMCSA stock traded up $0.17 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $43.24. 4,615,562 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,012,971. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.74 billion, a PE ratio of 11.63, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.98. Comcast Co. has a 1-year low of $36.38 and a 1-year high of $47.46. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $43.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $43.22. The company has a current ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 return on equity of 19.75% and a net margin of 12.66%. The firm had revenue of $31.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.41 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Comcast Co. will post 4.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 3rd will be paid a $0.31 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 2nd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.87%. This is an increase from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 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.