Comcast Corporation $CMCSA Shares Sold by Swiss National Bank

Key Points

• Swiss National Bank trimmed its Comcast stake by 6.0% in Q3, selling 681,600 shares and now holds 10,735,500 shares (about 0.29% of Comcast) valued at roughly $337.3 million.
• Major institutions largely added to positions—Vanguard, State Street and Dodge & Cox increased stakes while Norges Bank opened a new ~$3.53 billion position—leaving approximately 84.32% of Comcast owned by institutional investors.
• Analyst sentiment is mixed: the consensus is a "Hold" with an average price target of $34.87, alongside recent downgrades and price-target cuts from several brokerages.

Swiss National Bank trimmed its position in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA - Free Report) by 6.0% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,735,500 shares of the cable giant's stock after selling 681,600 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.29% of Comcast worth $337,309,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of CMCSA. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 369,438,921 shares of the cable giant's stock worth $13,185,275,000 after acquiring an additional 1,257,196 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Comcast by 2.5% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 172,769,800 shares of the cable giant's stock worth $6,166,154,000 after acquiring an additional 4,231,140 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox increased its stake in shares of Comcast by 18.1% during the second quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 111,272,320 shares of the cable giant's stock worth $3,971,309,000 after acquiring an additional 17,054,579 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Comcast during the second quarter worth about $3,528,361,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Comcast by 7.5% in the second quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,154,170 shares of the cable giant's stock valued at $1,289,984,000 after purchasing an additional 2,517,906 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CMCSA. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on Comcast from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 30th. BNP Paribas Exane cut Comcast from a "neutral" rating to an "underperform" rating and set a $27.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Comcast in a research note on Friday, January 9th. Pivotal Research lowered Comcast from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group cut their price objective on Comcast from $38.00 to $30.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Comcast currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $34.87.

Comcast Trading Up 1.0%

Shares of Comcast stock opened at $31.91 on Monday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $30.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.94. Comcast Corporation has a 12-month low of $25.75 and a 12-month high of $37.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96. The stock has a market cap of $114.81 billion, a PE ratio of 5.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 0.79.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The cable giant reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.09. Comcast had a return on equity of 16.86% and a net margin of 16.17%.The business had revenue of $32.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $32.35 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.96 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Comcast Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be issued a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. Comcast's dividend payout ratio is 24.58%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Comcast

In related news, CEO Michael J. Cavanagh sold 57,947 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.66, for a total value of $1,892,549.02. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 622,336 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,325,493.76. This represents a 8.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Comcast

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.

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