Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Price Target Cut to $38.00 by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) had its price target decreased by Morgan Stanley from $45.00 to $38.00 in a report published on Friday,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the cable giant’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on CMCSA. Scotiabank upgraded 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 boosted their target price on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their target price on shares of Comcast from $54.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Comcast presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $45.00.

Comcast Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of CMCSA opened at $33.66 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $38.80 and its 200-day simple moving average is $40.11. The company has a market cap of $128.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.05, a P/E/G ratio of 1.36 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. Comcast has a twelve month low of $32.50 and a twelve month high of $47.11.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.08. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. As a group, analysts expect that Comcast will post 4.25 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be issued a $0.33 dividend. This is a positive change from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 2nd. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 33.33%.

Insider Activity

In other Comcast news, CEO Brian L. Roberts sold 234,464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.66, for a total transaction of $10,002,234.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 6,669,928 shares in the company, valued at approximately $284,539,128.48. This represents a 3.40 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, 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 owns 534,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $22,779,218.91. The trade was a 4.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Comcast

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Centaurus Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 77.2% in the second quarter. Centaurus Financial Inc. now owns 14,182 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $555,000 after purchasing an additional 6,179 shares during the last quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. increased its holdings in Comcast by 4.6% in the 3rd quarter. Neville Rodie & Shaw Inc. now owns 14,581 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $609,000 after buying an additional 645 shares during the period. AMF Tjanstepension AB raised its position in Comcast by 18.9% during the 3rd quarter. AMF Tjanstepension AB now owns 832,594 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $34,810,000 after buying an additional 132,442 shares during the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its stake in Comcast by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 786,946 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $32,871,000 after acquiring an additional 41,061 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 211.7% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 2,890,571 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $120,739,000 after acquiring an additional 1,963,246 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% 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.