ARS Investment Partners LLC Buys 55,770 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

ARS Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 41.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 191,691 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 55,770 shares during the period. ARS Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $7,194,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CMCSA. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. boosted its position in Comcast by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 535,622 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $20,102,000 after purchasing an additional 14,230 shares during the period. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in Comcast by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Mitchell & Pahl Private Wealth LLC now owns 85,443 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $3,207,000 after purchasing an additional 2,912 shares during the period. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Comcast by 38.2% during the fourth quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 42,277 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,587,000 after purchasing an additional 11,693 shares during the period. Leonard Rickey Investment Advisors P.L.L.C. boosted its position in Comcast by 12.6% during the fourth quarter. Leonard Rickey Investment Advisors P.L.L.C. now owns 8,761 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 983 shares during the period. Finally, MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB boosted its position in Comcast by 18.8% during the fourth quarter. MassMutual Private Wealth & Trust FSB now owns 416,693 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $15,638,000 after purchasing an additional 66,002 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CMCSA shares. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Comcast from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $48.00 to $45.00 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Comcast from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. KeyCorp upped their price objective on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Comcast from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Comcast has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.33.

Comcast Price Performance

Shares of CMCSA opened at $36.58 on Tuesday. Comcast Co. has a 12-month low of $36.15 and a 12-month high of $47.11. The business’s fifty day moving average is $39.97 and its 200 day moving average is $40.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The stock has a market cap of $139.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.83, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.01.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $32.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.78 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.81% and a net margin of 11.92%. Comcast’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Comcast Co. will post 4.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s payout ratio is 33.33%.

Insider Activity at Comcast

In related news, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 25,537 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.59, for a total value of $1,087,620.83. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 534,849 shares in the company, valued at approximately $22,779,218.91. The trade was a 4.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian L. Roberts sold 234,464 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.66, for a total value of $10,002,234.24. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 6,669,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $284,539,128.48. The trade was a 3.40 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.