Brown Advisory Inc. Trims Stock Holdings in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Brown Advisory Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA - Free Report) by 56.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,513,995 shares of the cable giant's stock after selling 1,928,431 shares during the period. Brown Advisory Inc.'s holdings in Comcast were worth $55,866,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Comcast in the fourth quarter worth $3,835,226,000. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 141,680,277 shares of the cable giant's stock valued at $5,317,167,000 after purchasing an additional 11,255,683 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 724.7% during the first quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 10,160,649 shares of the cable giant's stock valued at $374,927,000 after purchasing an additional 8,928,641 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 50,320,446 shares of the cable giant's stock valued at $1,890,027,000 after purchasing an additional 5,402,377 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dodge & Cox lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 6.8% during the fourth quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 79,102,667 shares of the cable giant's stock valued at $2,968,723,000 after purchasing an additional 5,039,823 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays lowered their target price on Comcast from $37.00 to $35.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. Bernstein Bank reduced their price target on Comcast from $38.00 to $37.00 and set a "market perform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on Comcast from $44.00 to $40.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. New Street Research reduced their price target on Comcast from $44.00 to $38.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their target price on Comcast from $47.00 to $45.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $40.96.

Comcast Stock Up 0.1%

CMCSA stock traded up $0.04 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $35.66. The company had a trading volume of 3,789,655 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,926,072. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $133.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.92 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.47. Comcast Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $31.44 and a fifty-two week high of $45.31.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The cable giant reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.08. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.70% and a net margin of 12.72%. The company had revenue of $29.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $29.82 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.04 EPS. The company's revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Comcast Corporation will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 2nd will be issued a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 2nd. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.70%. Comcast's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.43%.

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.