Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.31

Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 31st, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be given a dividend of 0.31 per share by the cable giant on Wednesday, January 29th. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 8th.

Comcast has raised its dividend by an average of 8.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 17 consecutive years. Comcast has a payout ratio of 28.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Comcast to earn $4.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.24 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.7%.

Comcast Trading Down 0.3 %

CMCSA stock opened at $43.56 on Friday. Comcast has a 12-month low of $36.43 and a 12-month high of $47.11. The business’s 50-day moving average is $40.80 and its 200 day moving average is $39.58. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16. The stock has a market cap of $168.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.59, a PEG ratio of 1.11 and a beta of 1.01.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.06. Comcast had a return on equity of 20.17% and a net margin of 12.46%. The firm had revenue of $32.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Comcast will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com cut Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Scotiabank upgraded Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $47.75 to $48.00 in a report on Friday. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Wednesday, July 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.63.

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.