Baxter Bros Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Comcast Corporation $CMCSA

Baxter Bros Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 14.2% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 132,487 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 21,998 shares during the period. Baxter Bros Inc.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $3,960,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Comcast by 4.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 180,687,135 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $5,677,190,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,335 shares in the last quarter. Dodge & Cox boosted its stake in Comcast by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 112,567,918 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $3,536,884,000 after purchasing an additional 1,295,598 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its stake in Comcast by 46.1% in the 3rd quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 33,706,330 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,059,053,000 after purchasing an additional 10,633,206 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Comcast by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 24,104,774 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $757,372,000 after purchasing an additional 686,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its stake in Comcast by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 22,047,063 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $692,719,000 after purchasing an additional 2,470,742 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on CMCSA. Pivotal Research cut shares of Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Citigroup reissued a “buy” rating and set a $33.00 price target (up from $32.79) on shares of Comcast in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Comcast from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Monday, January 12th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their target price on Comcast from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 16th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Comcast from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.81.

Comcast Stock Up 3.7%

CMCSA stock opened at $29.35 on Friday. Comcast Corporation has a 1-year low of $25.75 and a 1-year high of $36.66. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $30.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $29.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $105.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.36 and a beta of 0.80.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The cable giant reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.09. Comcast had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 16.17%.The firm had revenue of $32.31 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $32.35 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.96 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Comcast Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be paid a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.5%. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 24.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Comcast

In other news, CEO Michael J. Cavanagh sold 57,947 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.66, for a total value of $1,892,549.02. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 622,336 shares in the company, valued at $20,325,493.76. The trade was a 8.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. 1.32% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Comcast Profile

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is a diversified global media and technology company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its principal operations are organized around Comcast Cable, which provides broadband internet, video, voice and wireless services to residential and business customers in the United States under the Xfinity and Comcast Business brands, and NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment group that develops, produces and distributes content across broadcast and cable networks, film, and streaming platforms.

NBCUniversal’s assets include the NBC broadcast network, a portfolio of cable channels, Universal Pictures and other film and television production businesses, and the Peacock streaming service.