Analyzing Comcast (CMCSA) & The Competition

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is one of 257 public companies in the “Media” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Comcast to similar companies based on the strength of its earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, dividends, risk and valuation.

Risk & Volatility

Comcast has a beta of 0.72, indicating that its share price is 28% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Comcast’s competitors have a beta of 0.96, indicating that their average share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

84.3% of Comcast shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 37.7% of shares of all “Media” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Comcast shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 17.6% of shares of all “Media” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Comcast and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Comcast	9.20%	14.64%	5.14%
Comcast Competitors	-18.60%	-48.00%	-4.99%

Dividends

Comcast pays an annual dividend of $1.32 per share and has a dividend yield of 5.3%. Comcast pays out 41.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Media” companies pay a dividend yield of 5.5% and pay out 285.7% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Comcast has increased its dividend for 18 consecutive years.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations and price targets for Comcast and its competitors, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Comcast	6	11	10	0	2.15
Comcast Competitors	2335	6930	10777	490	2.46

Comcast currently has a consensus price target of $28.77, suggesting a potential upside of 16.25%. As a group, “Media” companies have a potential upside of 30.25%. Given Comcast’s competitors stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Comcast has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Comcast and its competitors gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Comcast	$123.71 billion	$20.00 billion	7.83
Comcast Competitors	$3.00 billion	$35.12 million	0.13

Comcast has higher revenue and earnings than its competitors. Comcast is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Comcast beats its competitors on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

About Comcast

Comcast Corporation is a media and telecommunications company whose businesses include broadband, cable television, wireless and voice services, as well as entertainment, news and theme parks. Its Xfinity brand offers residential and business connectivity and entertainment services in the United States. Through NBCUniversal, Comcast operates the NBC broadcast network, cable channels, the Peacock streaming service, Universal Pictures and Universal theme parks. The company also owns Sky, which provides television, broadband and related services in the United Kingdom and other European markets.