Banco Santander S.A. Decreases Holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Banco Santander S.A. decreased its stake in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 0.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 632,552 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 4,823 shares during the quarter. Banco Santander S.A.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $26,422,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CMCSA. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 41.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 28,016,389 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,214,512,000 after purchasing an additional 8,243,302 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in Comcast by 80.9% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 10,542,253 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $457,007,000 after buying an additional 4,714,586 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Comcast by 92.1% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,722,620 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $339,223,000 after buying an additional 4,182,525 shares in the last quarter. Kodai Capital Management LP acquired a new position in shares of Comcast during the first quarter valued at approximately $102,119,000. Finally, Swedbank AB purchased a new position in shares of Comcast in the first quarter valued at approximately $93,051,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Comcast from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp raised their target price on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com cut Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.19.

Comcast Stock Up 0.2 %

CMCSA opened at $43.09 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The company has a market cap of $164.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.56, a PEG ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 1.00. Comcast Co. has a one year low of $36.43 and a one year high of $47.11. The business’s fifty day moving average is $41.82 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.97.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 firm had revenue of $32.07 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.08 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that Comcast Co. will post 4.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.88%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.33%.

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.