Quantessence Capital LLC Purchases New Position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Quantessence Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 18,428 shares of the cable giant's stock, valued at approximately $692,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMCSA. Alta Advisers Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Alta Advisers Ltd now owns 12,657 shares of the cable giant's stock valued at $475,000 after acquiring an additional 857 shares in the last quarter. Harvest Investment Services LLC acquired a new stake in Comcast in the fourth quarter valued at about $280,000. Optivise Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Comcast in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $211,000. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its position in Comcast by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 78,715 shares of the cable giant's stock worth $2,954,000 after purchasing an additional 2,956 shares during the period. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 133.4% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 382,187 shares of the cable giant's stock worth $14,343,000 after buying an additional 218,444 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.32% of the company's stock.

Comcast Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of Comcast stock traded up $0.71 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $33.90. 29,362,656 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,819,633. Comcast Co. has a twelve month low of $31.44 and a twelve month high of $45.31. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.35 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $128.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The cable giant reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.08. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 13.09%. The firm had revenue of $29.89 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $29.82 billion. Research analysts forecast that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 2nd were given a $0.33 dividend. This is a positive change from Comcast's previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, April 2nd. Comcast's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 31.81%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

CMCSA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered Comcast from an "equal weight" rating to an "underweight" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $37.00 to $31.00 in a report on Monday, April 14th. Bank of America lowered shares of Comcast from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $50.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer cut their price target on shares of Comcast from $55.00 to $38.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Friday. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $39.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Comcast from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $41.98.

Comcast Company Profile

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.