Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.08 EPS

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The cable giant reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.08, Zacks reports. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%.

Comcast Stock Down 11.0 %

Shares of CMCSA opened at $33.25 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $38.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The firm has a market cap of $127.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.01. Comcast has a 52 week low of $32.50 and a 52 week high of $47.11.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CMCSA has been the topic of several research reports. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Wednesday, November 6th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $47.75 to $48.00 in a report on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Comcast from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $48.00 to $45.00 in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Pivotal Research increased their target price on Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.89.

Insider Transactions at Comcast

In related news, CEO Brian L. Roberts sold 234,464 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.66, for a total value of $10,002,234.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6,669,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $284,539,128.48. The trade was a 3.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 25,537 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.59, for a total transaction of $1,087,620.83. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 534,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,779,218.91. This represents a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

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.