Ascent Group LLC Buys 38,246 Shares of Comcast Corporation $CMCSA

Ascent Group LLC grew its stake in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 57.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 104,287 shares of the cable giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 38,246 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $2,269,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of CMCSA. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC lifted its position in Comcast by 16.6% during the third quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 2,549,714 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $55,482,000 after purchasing an additional 363,552 shares during the last quarter. Saudi Central Bank raised its position in Comcast by 87.2% in the 2nd quarter. Saudi Central Bank now owns 251,190 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $6,167,000 after purchasing an additional 117,038 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S purchased a new stake in Comcast during the second quarter worth $137,515,000. Inceptionr LLC purchased a new stake in Comcast during the first quarter valued at about $660,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in shares of Comcast by 10.2% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 40,864,921 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,173,232,000 after buying an additional 3,783,234 shares in the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently commented on the company. TD Cowen reduced their target price on Comcast from $39.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “buy” rating and set a $31.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research report on Monday, October 19th. Raymond James Financial reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Comcast in a report on Friday, October 2nd. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Comcast from $29.00 to $27.50 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 2nd. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $27.00 price objective (down from $32.00) on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have given a Hold rating and six have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $28.77.

Comcast Stock Down 2.2%

CMCSA stock opened at $24.39 on Friday. Comcast Corporation has a 1-year low of $20.48 and a 1-year high of $32.85. The firm has a market cap of $86.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.72, a PEG ratio of 1.68 and a beta of 0.72. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $23.14 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 22nd. The cable giant reported $1.07 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.99 by $0.08. Comcast had a net margin of 9.20% and a return on equity of 14.64%. The company had revenue of $29.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $29.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.12 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Comcast Corporation will post 3.54 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 27th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 6th will be paid a $0.33 dividend. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.4%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 6th. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.77%.

Comcast Company Profile

Comcast Corporation is a media and telecommunications company whose businesses include broadband, cable television, wireless and voice services, as well as entertainment, news and theme parks. Its Xfinity brand offers residential and business connectivity and entertainment services in the United States.

Through NBCUniversal, Comcast operates the NBC broadcast network, cable channels, the Peacock streaming service, Universal Pictures and Universal theme parks. The company also owns Sky, which provides television, broadband and related services in the United Kingdom and other European markets.

Comcast traces its roots to a cable television business founded in 1963 as American Cable Systems.