Principal Financial Group Inc. Decreases Stock Holdings in Comcast Corporation $CMCSA

Key Points

• Principal Financial Group cut its Comcast stake by 35.8% in Q4, selling 2,700,749 shares and now holds 4,836,188 shares valued at about $144.6 million (≈0.13% of the company).
• Wall Street consensus is a Hold with an average price target of $34.94; 8 analysts rate Buy, 15 Hold and 2 Sell.
• CEO Michael J. Cavanagh sold 57,947 shares on Feb. 11 at roughly $32.66 (an 8.52% reduction in his stake); institutional investors own 84.32% of Comcast while insiders hold 1.40%.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lowered its holdings in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA - Free Report) by 35.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 4,836,188 shares of the cable giant's stock after selling 2,700,749 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.13% of Comcast worth $144,554,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cora Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Comcast by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Cora Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,013 shares of the cable giant's stock valued at $329,000 after acquiring an additional 362 shares during the last quarter. FSA Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in Comcast by 5.5% in the third quarter. FSA Advisors Inc. now owns 7,203 shares of the cable giant's stock valued at $226,000 after purchasing an additional 376 shares during the last quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. lifted its stake in Comcast by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 5,479 shares of the cable giant's stock valued at $164,000 after purchasing an additional 377 shares during the last quarter. WPG Advisers LLC increased its position in Comcast by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. WPG Advisers LLC now owns 2,801 shares of the cable giant's stock worth $84,000 after buying an additional 384 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First National Trust Co raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 0.8% in the third quarter. First National Trust Co now owns 47,047 shares of the cable giant's stock valued at $1,478,000 after buying an additional 387 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.32% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

CMCSA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Comcast from $31.00 to $33.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of Comcast from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Bank of America raised shares of Comcast from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and boosted their target price for the company from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Monday, January 12th. Sanford C. Bernstein decreased their price objective on Comcast from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a "market perform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their target price on Comcast from $34.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Friday, April 24th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $34.94.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Michael J. Cavanagh sold 57,947 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 622,336 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,325,493.76. The trade was a 8.52% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 1.40% of the company's stock.

Comcast Price Performance

Comcast stock opened at $26.44 on Thursday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.95. Comcast Corporation has a 52 week low of $25.75 and a 52 week high of $36.66. The stock has a market cap of $94.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.20, a PEG ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.71. 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 - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The cable giant reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $31.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.42 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 15.47% and a net margin of 15.00%.Comcast's revenue was up 5.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.09 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Comcast Corporation will post 3.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.