Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Evercore ISI

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) was upgraded by investment analysts at Evercore ISI to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on CMCSA. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on Comcast from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Pivotal Research upped their target price on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $47.75 to $48.00 in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.19.

Comcast Price Performance

CMCSA stock opened at $43.47 on Thursday. Comcast has a 1 year low of $36.43 and a 1 year high of $47.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.69, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.00. 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 business’s 50-day moving average is $41.98 and its two-hundred day moving average is $40.03.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.06. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. The company had revenue of $32.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that Comcast will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Comcast

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Comcast by 4.5% in the 2nd quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 36,027 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,411,000 after buying an additional 1,550 shares in the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank raised its position in Comcast by 8.9% during the second quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 191,846 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $7,513,000 after acquiring an additional 15,664 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 3.7% in the third quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 1,920,800 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $80,232,000 after purchasing an additional 68,139 shares in the last quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC increased its stake in shares of Comcast by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 2,210,469 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $92,331,000 after purchasing an additional 15,807 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. raised its position in shares of Comcast by 3,816.0% during the 2nd quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 558,382 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $21,866,000 after purchasing an additional 544,123 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.32% 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.