Easterly Investment Partners LLC Increases Holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Easterly Investment Partners LLC increased its stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 30.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 187,031 shares of the cable giant’s stock after buying an additional 43,690 shares during the quarter. Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $7,812,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Duality Advisers LP purchased a new stake in Comcast during the first quarter valued at about $436,000. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 111.7% during the 1st quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 53,442 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $2,317,000 after buying an additional 28,198 shares in the last quarter. PFG Advisors raised its holdings in Comcast by 20.0% during the 1st quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 27,686 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,200,000 after acquiring an additional 4,613 shares during the period. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of Comcast by 4.3% during the first quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund now owns 611,965 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $26,529,000 after acquiring an additional 24,954 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden grew its position in shares of Comcast by 19.1% in the first quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 1,200,028 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $52,021,000 after purchasing an additional 192,100 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on CMCSA shares. TD Cowen reduced their price objective on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Comcast from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Pivotal Research raised their price target on Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.75.

Comcast Trading Down 0.5 %

CMCSA stock traded down $0.22 during trading on Friday, reaching $43.97. The company had a trading volume of 4,305,858 shares, compared to its average volume of 19,647,336. The business has a 50 day moving average of $41.00 and a 200 day moving average of $39.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72. The company has a market cap of $170.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.88, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 1.00. Comcast Co. has a 52 week low of $36.43 and a 52 week high of $47.11.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.06. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. 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 firm earned $1.08 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Comcast Co. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed 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 2.82%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 33.33%.

Comcast 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.