LPL Financial LLC Acquires 188,331 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

LPL Financial LLC increased its holdings in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 5.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,437,898 shares of the cable giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 188,331 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.09% of Comcast worth $129,024,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in Comcast by 5.4% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,420,328 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $4,904,647,000 after acquiring an additional 6,062,658 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Comcast by 7.1% during the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 34,101,077 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,279,813,000 after purchasing an additional 2,270,186 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Comcast by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 32,709,601 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,227,591,000 after purchasing an additional 838,366 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in Comcast by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 30,364,136 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,268,310,000 after purchasing an additional 1,717,762 shares during the period. Finally, Amundi grew its holdings in Comcast by 147.9% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 24,086,671 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $895,499,000 after buying an additional 14,369,056 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CMCSA shares. Rosenblatt Securities reduced their target price on shares of Comcast from $45.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Loop Capital dropped their price target on shares of Comcast from $54.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Scotiabank downgraded Comcast from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $48.00 to $44.50 in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Comcast from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.83.

Comcast Stock Performance

Comcast stock opened at $36.60 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $35.84 and a 200-day moving average of $39.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.68. Comcast Co. has a 1 year low of $32.50 and a 1 year high of $45.31. The company has a market capitalization of $138.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.00.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.08. Comcast had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 19.98%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be given a $0.33 dividend. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.61%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 2nd. This is a positive change from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. Comcast’s payout ratio is 31.81%.

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.