Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Cut to Equal Weight at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note published on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $45.00 price objective on the cable giant’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $48.00.

Several other analysts have also commented on the stock. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com lowered Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. TD Cowen cut their target price on Comcast from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Pivotal Research upped their price objective on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Comcast presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.06.

Comcast Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ CMCSA opened at $37.86 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $42.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.32. The stock has a market cap of $144.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. Comcast has a fifty-two week low of $36.43 and a fifty-two week high of $47.11.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $32.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.78 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.08 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Comcast will post 4.26 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.28%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is 33.33%.

Insider Activity at Comcast

In other news, CEO Brian L. Roberts sold 234,464 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.66, for a total transaction of $10,002,234.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6,669,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $284,539,128.48. This represents a 3.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 25,537 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.59, for a total value of $1,087,620.83. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 534,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,779,218.91. This trade represents a 4.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. World Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Comcast by 904.0% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 254,545 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $10,632,000 after purchasing an additional 229,192 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 15.2% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 171,440 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $7,161,000 after buying an additional 22,684 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its position 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 acquiring an additional 68,139 shares during the period. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 0.7% in the third quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 2,210,469 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $92,331,000 after acquiring an additional 15,807 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its position in Comcast by 3,816.0% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 558,382 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $21,866,000 after acquiring an additional 544,123 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

About Comcast

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.