Wedbush Securities Inc. Grows Stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Wedbush Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 4.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 39,205 shares of the cable giant’s stock after buying an additional 1,782 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $1,471,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Morse Asset Management Inc purchased a new stake in Comcast in the third quarter valued at $451,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,535,000. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of Comcast by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Insigneo Advisory Services LLC now owns 34,912 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,458,000 after purchasing an additional 976 shares during the period. EP Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in Comcast by 14.8% during the 3rd quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 989,106 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $41,315,000 after buying an additional 127,144 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI increased its position in Comcast by 31.7% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 7,613,977 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $318,036,000 after buying an additional 1,833,453 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on CMCSA. Citigroup decreased their price objective on Comcast from $47.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $38.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Comcast from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Scotiabank cut Comcast from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $48.00 to $44.50 in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas raised Comcast from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Comcast currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.08.

Comcast Stock Performance

Shares of CMCSA opened at $33.38 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $126.21 billion, a PE ratio of 8.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.94. Comcast Co. has a 52-week low of $32.50 and a 52-week high of $45.31. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.08. Comcast had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 19.98%. Equities research analysts predict that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be issued a $0.33 dividend. This is a positive change from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 2nd. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.95%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is 31.81%.

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.