National Pension Service Purchases 1,035,584 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

National Pension Service lifted its holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 8,701,529 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,035,584 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned about 0.22% of Comcast worth $363,463,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board grew its holdings in Comcast by 25,881.7% during the first quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 10,850,995 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $470,391,000 after purchasing an additional 10,809,231 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its holdings in Comcast by 41.7% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 28,016,389 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,214,512,000 after purchasing an additional 8,243,302 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Comcast by 7.4% in the first quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 115,703,280 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $5,015,737,000 after purchasing an additional 7,929,963 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board boosted its holdings in Comcast by 80.9% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 10,542,253 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $457,007,000 after buying an additional 4,714,586 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Comcast by 92.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,722,620 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $339,223,000 after purchasing an additional 4,182,525 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CMCSA. Barclays lifted their target price on Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday. Pivotal Research lifted their price objective on Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Comcast from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price objective on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.75.

Comcast Price Performance

Shares of CMCSA opened at $43.31 on Monday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $40.80 and a 200-day moving average price of $39.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a current ratio of 0.72. The stock has a market capitalization of $167.72 billion, a PE ratio of 11.71, a PEG ratio of 1.15 and a beta of 1.00. Comcast Co. has a fifty-two week low of $36.43 and a fifty-two week high of $47.11.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.06. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.81% and a net margin of 11.92%. The company had revenue of $32.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.78 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.08 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Comcast Co. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.33%.

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.