Insider Selling: Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) President Sells 25,537 Shares of Stock

Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 25,537 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction on 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Comcast Stock Up 1.5 %

CMCSA stock opened at $43.19 on Monday. Comcast Co. has a fifty-two week low of $36.43 and a fifty-two week high of $47.11. The company has a market capitalization of $165.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $42.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.06. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. The company had revenue of $32.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.78 billion. During the same quarter last 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. As a group, analysts forecast that Comcast Co. will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be issued a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.33%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Comcast

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in Comcast by 236.7% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 1,112,440 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $48,224,000 after buying an additional 782,029 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its position in Comcast by 71.0% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 198,430 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $8,602,000 after purchasing an additional 82,357 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC increased its position in Comcast by 1.7% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 666,020 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $28,872,000 after buying an additional 11,417 shares in the last quarter. SRN Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 5.1% in the first quarter. SRN Advisors LLC now owns 19,966 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $866,000 after buying an additional 962 shares during the period. Finally, Quent Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 3.0% in the first quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 16,795 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $728,000 after buying an additional 485 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on CMCSA. Barclays increased their price objective on Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. KeyCorp boosted their price objective on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI raised shares of Comcast to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Pivotal Research raised their price objective on Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Comcast currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.19.

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.