Cibc World Markets Corp Boosts Holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Cibc World Markets Corp boosted its stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 11.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,153,957 shares of the cable giant’s stock after buying an additional 121,113 shares during the quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp’s holdings in Comcast were worth $43,308,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in CMCSA. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 5.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,420,328 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $4,904,647,000 after buying an additional 6,062,658 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Comcast by 7.1% in the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Comcast by 2.6% in 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 in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC lifted its position in Comcast by 6.0% during the third 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 worth $1,268,310,000 after buying an additional 1,717,762 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi lifted its position in Comcast by 147.9% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 24,086,671 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $895,499,000 after buying an additional 14,369,056 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Benchmark reduced their price target on Comcast from $57.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $38.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reduced their price target 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Comcast from $45.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Nine 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Comcast currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.83.

Comcast Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ CMCSA opened at $35.43 on Monday. 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 $133.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The business has a 50-day moving average of $35.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $39.19.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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%. On average, analysts forecast that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be issued a $0.33 dividend. This is an increase from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.73%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 2nd. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.