Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Raised to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) was upgraded by Wall Street Zen to a “hold” rating in a research note issued on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Comcast in a research report on Friday, January 9th. Arete Research set a $23.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, January 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on shares of Comcast from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 16th. Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $33.00 price target (up from $32.79) on shares of Comcast in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark lowered their price target on shares of Comcast from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 5th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.87.

Comcast Price Performance

Comcast stock opened at $30.16 on Friday. Comcast has a twelve month low of $25.75 and a twelve month high of $37.72. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $29.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The firm has a market capitalization of $108.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.62, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 0.79.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The cable giant reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $32.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $32.35 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.96 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Comcast will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Comcast

In other Comcast news, CEO Michael J. Cavanagh sold 57,947 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were 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. This represents a 8.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.32% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Comcast

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CMCSA. Capital A Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in Comcast by 173.7% in the second quarter. Capital A Wealth Management LLC now owns 687 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 436 shares during the last quarter. Imprint Wealth LLC purchased a new position in shares of Comcast during the third quarter worth approximately $26,000. Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. acquired a new position in shares of Comcast in the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. United Financial Planning Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Comcast in the 3rd quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Howard Hughes Medical Institute purchased a new stake in Comcast in the 2nd quarter valued at $29,000. 84.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Comcast

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.