Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $18.17 Million Position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lessened its holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 5.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 484,000 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 28,200 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Comcast were worth $18,165,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Winch Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of Comcast by 269.9% during the 4th quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 688 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 502 shares during the period. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast during the third quarter worth $30,000. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Comcast by 365.4% during the third 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. Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Comcast in the 4th quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Iron Horse Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 220.3% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CMCSA has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com cut Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Comcast from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on shares of Comcast from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of Comcast from $42.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on Comcast from $45.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.13.

Comcast Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of CMCSA opened at $35.23 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.68. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.54 and a 200-day simple moving average of $39.85. Comcast Co. has a 52 week low of $32.50 and a 52 week high of $45.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $133.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.49, a P/E/G ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 1.00.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.08. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 13.09%. On average, equities research analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be given a $0.33 dividend. This is a boost from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 2nd. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.88%.

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.