Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Sells 613,921 Shares of Comcast Corporation $CMCSA

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. decreased its stake in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 5.2% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 11,115,188 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 613,921 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $319,117,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Comcast by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 369,311,219 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $11,038,712,000 after purchasing an additional 2,160,829 shares during the last quarter. North Dakota State Investment Board bought a new position in shares of Comcast during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $3,754,000. Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 72.1% during the fourth quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 232,883 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $6,961,000 after buying an additional 97,601 shares during the last quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Comcast by 53.8% in the fourth quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 206,112 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $6,161,000 after buying an additional 72,129 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Comcast by 10.0% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 43,332,228 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,295,200,000 after buying an additional 3,952,642 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on CMCSA. KeyCorp restated a “sector weight” rating on shares of Comcast in a report on Thursday, April 23rd. New Street Research reduced their target price on Comcast from $31.00 to $30.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, June 25th. Citigroup decreased their target price on Comcast from $35.50 to $32.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, June 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on shares of Comcast from $29.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 2nd. Finally, Evercore upped their price target on shares of Comcast from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.04.

Comcast Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $23.19 on Thursday. Comcast Corporation has a 52-week low of $22.13 and a 52-week high of $36.03. The stock has a market cap of $82.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.67. The business’s 50 day moving average is $24.41 and its 200 day moving average is $27.78. The company has a quick ratio of 0.87, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, April 23rd. The cable giant reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.06. Comcast had a return on equity of 15.47% and a net margin of 15.00%.The business had revenue of $31.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.42 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.09 EPS. Comcast’s revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Comcast Corporation will post 3.49 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.33 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.7%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.98%.

Comcast Profile

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is a diversified global media and technology company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its principal operations are organized around Comcast Cable, which provides broadband internet, video, voice and wireless services to residential and business customers in the United States under the Xfinity and Comcast Business brands, and NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment group that develops, produces and distributes content across broadcast and cable networks, film, and streaming platforms.

NBCUniversal’s assets include the NBC broadcast network, a portfolio of cable channels, Universal Pictures and other film and television production businesses, and the Peacock streaming service.