MetLife Investment Management LLC Has $41.94 Million Stock Holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

MetLife Investment Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 3.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,004,129 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 39,521 shares during the quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $41,942,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 4.5% in the second quarter. Capital Investment Advisors LLC now owns 36,027 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,411,000 after purchasing an additional 1,550 shares during the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank raised its position in Comcast by 8.9% in the 2nd quarter. First Hawaiian Bank now owns 191,846 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $7,513,000 after buying an additional 15,664 shares during the last quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Parnassus Investments LLC now owns 1,920,800 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $80,232,000 after buying an additional 68,139 shares during the last quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC grew its position in Comcast by 0.7% during the third quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 2,210,469 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $92,331,000 after buying an additional 15,807 shares during the period. Finally, Wulff Hansen & CO. increased its holdings in Comcast by 3,816.0% during the second quarter. Wulff Hansen & CO. now owns 558,382 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $21,866,000 after buying an additional 544,123 shares during the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Scotiabank raised shares of Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their target price for the company from $47.75 to $48.00 in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI raised Comcast to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Macquarie boosted their target price on Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. KeyCorp increased their price target on Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $47.19.

Comcast Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $42.71 on Wednesday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $40.11. Comcast Co. has a fifty-two week low of $36.43 and a fifty-two week high of $47.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The firm has a market cap of $163.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.00.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.06. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.81% and a net margin of 11.92%. The company had revenue of $32.07 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $31.78 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be issued a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.33%.

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.