Merit Financial Group LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Comcast Corporation $CMCSA

Merit Financial Group LLC reduced its stake in shares of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 23.2% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 122,651 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 37,083 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $3,011,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Comcast by 8.3% during the 2nd quarter. Cary Street Partners Financial LLC now owns 20,303 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $498,000 after acquiring an additional 1,552 shares in the last quarter. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC raised its holdings in Comcast by 5.9% during the second quarter. GRIMES & Co WEALTH MANAGEMENT LLC now owns 257,556 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $6,323,000 after purchasing an additional 14,244 shares during the last quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its position in Comcast by 5.3% during the second quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 4,329,783 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $106,296,000 after purchasing an additional 218,553 shares in the last quarter. Andrews Advisory Associates LLC grew its holdings in Comcast by 6.3% in the second quarter. Andrews Advisory Associates LLC now owns 27,342 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $671,000 after purchasing an additional 1,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Comcast by 7.0% in the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 136,752 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $3,356,000 after purchasing an additional 8,959 shares during the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Comcast Trading Up 0.0%

Comcast stock opened at $26.19 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $23.85 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.89. Comcast Corporation has a 52 week low of $21.28 and a 52 week high of $34.45. The stock has a market cap of $92.94 billion, a PE ratio of 8.48, a P/E/G ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a current ratio of 0.80, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.94.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 23rd. The cable giant reported $1.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.97 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $29.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $29.24 billion. Comcast had a net margin of 8.97% and a return on equity of 14.77%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.25 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Comcast Corporation will post 3.52 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 7th will be given a dividend of $0.33 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, October 7th. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.0%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 42.72%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on CMCSA shares. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, June 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada set a $26.00 target price on shares of Comcast and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, July 24th. New Street Research cut their target price on shares of Comcast from $31.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $31.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a report on Friday, July 24th. Finally, Evercore increased their price target on shares of Comcast from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $32.96.

About Comcast

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is a diversified global media and technology company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its principal operations are organized around Comcast Cable, which provides broadband internet, video, voice and wireless services to residential and business customers in the United States under the Xfinity and Comcast Business brands, and NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment group that develops, produces and distributes content across broadcast and cable networks, film, and streaming platforms.

NBCUniversal’s assets include the NBC broadcast network, a portfolio of cable channels, Universal Pictures and other film and television production businesses, and the Peacock streaming service.