Foundations Investment Advisors LLC Raises Stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Foundations Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA – Get Rating) by 49.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 49,826 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,395 shares during the period. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $1,742,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Comcast by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 405,068,330 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $11,880,654,000 after purchasing an additional 2,987,515 shares during the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 1.2% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 102,801,153 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $3,015,159,000 after acquiring an additional 1,232,157 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 26.0% in the second quarter. FMR LLC now owns 98,277,592 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $3,856,414,000 after acquiring an additional 20,251,251 shares in the last quarter. Dodge & Cox boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 0.4% in the second quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 85,157,816 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $3,341,593,000 after acquiring an additional 375,326 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 0.5% in the second quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 50,045,135 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,963,772,000 after acquiring an additional 262,241 shares in the last quarter. 82.23% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 1,610,496 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $2.38, for a total transaction of $3,832,980.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 25,153,615 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $59,865,603.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders sold a total of 7,527,791 shares of company stock valued at $19,025,007 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.11% of the company’s stock.

Comcast Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $36.03 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The firm has a market cap of $151.90 billion, a PE ratio of 30.28, a P/E/G ratio of 0.76 and a beta of 1.00. Comcast Co. has a 1-year low of $28.39 and a 1-year high of $48.42.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 26th. The cable giant reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $30.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.36 billion. Comcast had a net margin of 4.42% and a return on equity of 18.40%. The company’s revenue was up .7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.77 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 3.64 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 5th will be given a $0.29 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 4th. This is a positive change from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 90.76%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CMCSA has been the topic of several analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Comcast in a report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Pivotal Research lifted their target price on shares of Comcast from $42.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. KGI Securities downgraded shares of Comcast from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of Comcast from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. Finally, TD Securities decreased their price objective on shares of Comcast from $60.00 to $56.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.29.

Comcast Profile

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Comcast Corp. engages in the provision of video, Internet, and phone services. It operates through the following segments: Cable Communications, Media, Studios, Theme Parks, and Sky. The Cable Communications segment consists of Comcast Cable, which is a provider of broadband, video, voice, wireless, and other services to residential customers in the United States under the Xfinity brand.