BNP Paribas Exane Cuts Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Price Target to $26.00

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) had its price objective trimmed by BNP Paribas Exane from $27.00 to $26.00 in a report published on Thursday morning,MarketScreener reports. The brokerage currently has an underperform rating on the cable giant’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on Comcast from $32.00 to $31.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 16th. Arete Research set a $23.00 target price on Comcast in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered their target price on Comcast from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Pivotal Research cut Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Benchmark cut their price target on Comcast from $46.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.76.

Comcast Stock Down 1.4%

Shares of NASDAQ CMCSA opened at $28.33 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $101.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 0.79. Comcast has a 52 week low of $25.75 and a 52 week high of $37.48. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $30.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $29.52. The company has a quick ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The cable giant reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.09. Comcast had a net margin of 16.17% and a return on equity of 16.86%. The company had revenue of $32.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $32.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.96 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Comcast will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 1st. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.58%.

Insider Activity at Comcast

In other news, CEO Michael J. Cavanagh sold 57,947 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.66, for a total transaction of $1,892,549.02. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 622,336 shares in the company, valued at $20,325,493.76. The trade was a 8.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 1.32% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Comcast

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 2.6% during the second quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 12,275 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $438,000 after purchasing an additional 307 shares during the last quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. increased its stake in Comcast by 2.6% in the third quarter. Lakeshore Capital Group Inc. now owns 13,636 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $428,000 after purchasing an additional 343 shares during the last quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. lifted its position in Comcast by 4.9% during the fourth quarter. Lowe Brockenbrough & Co. Inc. now owns 7,532 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $225,000 after buying an additional 352 shares during the period. Cora Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Comcast by 3.4% in the 4th quarter. Cora Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,013 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $329,000 after buying an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hengehold Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Comcast by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Hengehold Capital Management LLC now owns 82,778 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $2,601,000 after buying an additional 372 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

About Comcast

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is a diversified global media and technology company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its principal operations are organized around Comcast Cable, which provides broadband internet, video, voice and wireless services to residential and business customers in the United States under the Xfinity and Comcast Business brands, and NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment group that develops, produces and distributes content across broadcast and cable networks, film, and streaming platforms.

NBCUniversal’s assets include the NBC broadcast network, a portfolio of cable channels, Universal Pictures and other film and television production businesses, and the Peacock streaming service.