Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Shares Bought by Avantax Planning Partners Inc.

Avantax Planning Partners Inc. raised its stake in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 4.5% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 11,980 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 521 shares during the period. Avantax Planning Partners Inc.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $525,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Comcast in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,542,988,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Comcast by 39.7% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,065,475 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $446,303,000 after buying an additional 2,861,358 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in Comcast by 663.0% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,401,702 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $105,315,000 after buying an additional 2,086,950 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC lifted its holdings in Comcast by 43.3% during the 3rd quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 6,311,296 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $279,843,000 after buying an additional 1,907,973 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC increased its holdings in shares of Comcast by 422.9% in the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,678,815 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $73,616,000 after acquiring an additional 1,357,756 shares during the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on CMCSA. StockNews.com lowered shares of Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 22nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Comcast from $55.00 to $53.00 in a report on Friday, April 5th. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of Comcast from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded shares of Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $50.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research note on Monday, May 13th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.33.

Comcast Stock Down 0.4 %

Shares of CMCSA traded down $0.14 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $38.54. The company had a trading volume of 14,375,674 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,521,572. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The stock has a market cap of $151.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.20, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.99. Comcast Co. has a 52 week low of $36.43 and a 52 week high of $47.46. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $40.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $42.04.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The cable giant reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.06. Comcast had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 12.64%. The business had revenue of $30.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $29.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.92 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Comcast Co. will post 4.21 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.22%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.80%.

Insider Transactions at Comcast

In related news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 3,176,923 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.19, for a total value of $10,134,384.37. Following the sale, the insider now owns 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,380,000. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

Comcast Company Profile

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.