Payden & Rygel Has $8.07 Million Stock Position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Payden & Rygel grew its position in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 627.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 215,070 shares of the cable giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 185,500 shares during the quarter. Payden & Rygel’s holdings in Comcast were worth $8,072,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its holdings in Comcast by 173.6% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,418,064 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $59,237,000 after purchasing an additional 899,716 shares in the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Comcast in the 3rd quarter valued at $451,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Comcast during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,535,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in Comcast in the third quarter worth $30,000. Finally, Sora Investors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Comcast during the third quarter valued at about $25,998,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CMCSA has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank lowered Comcast from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $48.00 to $44.50 in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup lowered their target price on Comcast from $47.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. BNP Paribas raised shares of Comcast from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price target for the company in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Comcast from $45.00 to $38.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of Comcast from $54.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.08.

Comcast Stock Performance

Shares of CMCSA stock opened at $33.38 on Friday. Comcast Co. has a 52 week low of $32.50 and a 52 week high of $45.31. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $35.76 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $38.87. The firm has a market cap of $126.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.68.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.08. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 13.09%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors 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 represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.95%. This is a positive change from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.81%.

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.