Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. Purchases 1,079 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Meridian Investment Counsel Inc. boosted its holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 1.3% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 86,248 shares of the cable giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,079 shares during the period. Comcast accounts for approximately 1.1% of Meridian Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 24th largest position. Meridian Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $3,603,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its position in Comcast by 25,881.7% during the first quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 10,850,995 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $470,391,000 after acquiring an additional 10,809,231 shares during the last quarter. Allstate Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Allstate Corp now owns 13,719 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $595,000 after buying an additional 321 shares in the last quarter. Chiron Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Comcast by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. Chiron Capital Management LLC now owns 5,888 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $255,000 after buying an additional 438 shares during the period. Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Comcast by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Strait & Sound Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,241 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $491,000 after acquiring an additional 400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its stake in Comcast by 8.0% during the first quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 47,974 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $2,080,000 after acquiring an additional 3,553 shares in the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $47.75 to $48.00 in a report on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com cut Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Macquarie restated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Comcast presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.75.

Comcast Stock Down 1.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ CMCSA opened at $42.88 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $164.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.53, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.00. Comcast Co. has a one year low of $36.43 and a one year high of $47.11. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 0.72 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $32.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.78 billion. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.08 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 8th. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.89%. Comcast’s payout ratio 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.