Kestra Investment Management LLC Increases Stake in Comcast Corporation $CMCSA

Kestra Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 49.5% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 71,331 shares of the cable giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,607 shares during the quarter. Kestra Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $2,632,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMCSA. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Comcast during the first quarter worth approximately $940,015,000. Dodge & Cox lifted its stake in Comcast by 19.1% during the first quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 94,217,741 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $3,476,635,000 after purchasing an additional 15,115,074 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Comcast by 1,959.3% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 13,228,732 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $488,140,000 after purchasing an additional 12,586,329 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in Comcast by 724.7% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 10,160,649 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $374,927,000 after purchasing an additional 8,928,641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its stake in Comcast by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 35,356,027 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,326,912,000 after purchasing an additional 4,991,891 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Comcast from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Benchmark restated a “buy” rating on shares of Comcast in a research note on Friday, July 18th. UBS Group cut their price target on Comcast from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 1st. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut their price target on Comcast from $44.00 to $35.00 in a research report on Friday, June 20th. Finally, Barclays cut their price target on Comcast from $35.00 to $34.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Comcast has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.73.

Comcast Trading Down 0.1%

CMCSA opened at $33.91 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $125.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 0.93. Comcast Corporation has a 52 week low of $31.03 and a 52 week high of $45.31. The business’s 50 day moving average is $34.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.68. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The cable giant reported $1.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.18 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $30.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $29.81 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 18.86% and a net margin of 18.44%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.21 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Comcast Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 1st will be issued a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 1st. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.9%. Comcast’s payout ratio is presently 21.82%.

About Comcast

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.