Easterly Investment Partners LLC Acquires 17,377 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Easterly Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 9.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 204,408 shares of the cable giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 17,377 shares during the period. Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $7,671,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in CMCSA. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Comcast during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,835,226,000. Caisse Des Depots ET Consignations bought a new position in shares of Comcast during the fourth quarter valued at $6,657,000. MSA Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast during the fourth quarter valued at $863,000. NEOS Investment Management LLC raised its position in Comcast by 14.9% in the 4th quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 461,137 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $17,306,000 after buying an additional 59,823 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sava Infond d.o.o. bought a new position in Comcast during the 4th quarter valued at about $120,000. 84.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on CMCSA shares. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of Comcast from $42.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 3rd. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Comcast from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Comcast from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group cut their price target on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their price objective on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Comcast presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.64.

Comcast Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of Comcast stock opened at $37.37 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The stock has a market cap of $141.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.00, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $35.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $39.02. Comcast Co. has a 1 year low of $32.50 and a 1 year high of $45.31.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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%. As a group, research analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be issued a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 2nd. This is an increase from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.53%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.