Madison Investment Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Madison Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 599,394 shares of the cable giant’s stock, valued at approximately $22,495,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in CMCSA. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd increased its holdings in Comcast by 28.9% in the third quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 21,789 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $910,000 after purchasing an additional 4,888 shares in the last quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. grew its stake in Comcast by 32.4% in the third quarter. Savvy Advisors Inc. now owns 7,903 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $330,000 after acquiring an additional 1,934 shares during the period. Aigen Investment Management LP acquired a new stake in Comcast in the third quarter valued at approximately $430,000. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its stake in Comcast by 19.1% in the third quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 184,302 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $7,698,000 after acquiring an additional 29,558 shares during the period. Finally, Live Oak Investment Partners grew its stake in Comcast by 9.1% in the third quarter. Live Oak Investment Partners now owns 26,402 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,103,000 after acquiring an additional 2,209 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on CMCSA shares. Macquarie reduced their price objective on Comcast from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their target price on Comcast from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. BNP Paribas raised Comcast from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Scotiabank cut Comcast from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $48.00 to $44.50 in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Comcast presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.83.

Comcast Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $35.19 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.68. Comcast Co. has a 52-week low of $32.50 and a 52-week high of $45.31. The firm has a market cap of $133.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.48, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s fifty day moving average is $36.02 and its 200 day moving average is $39.26.

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

Comcast Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be paid a $0.33 dividend. This is a positive change from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 2nd. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is currently 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.