Stevens Capital Management LP Purchases Shares of 25,956 Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Stevens Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 25,956 shares of the cable giant’s stock, valued at approximately $974,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of CMCSA. LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in Comcast by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 3,437,898 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $129,024,000 after buying an additional 188,331 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS purchased a new stake in Comcast during the fourth quarter valued at about $54,156,000. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Comcast by 24.0% during the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 26,552 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $996,000 after buying an additional 5,140 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. lifted its stake in Comcast by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 2,722,885 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $102,192,000 after buying an additional 164,185 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Comcast by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 4,131,214 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $155,044,000 after buying an additional 738,130 shares in the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on CMCSA. BNP Paribas raised shares of Comcast from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Comcast from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Macquarie dropped their target price on Comcast from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their target price on Comcast from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Loop Capital dropped their target price on Comcast from $54.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.83.

Comcast Trading Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $36.75 on Friday. Comcast Co. has a 52 week low of $32.50 and a 52 week high of $45.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.68. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $35.83 and its 200 day moving average price is $39.07. The company has a market capitalization of $138.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.00.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.08. Comcast had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 19.98%. On average, research analysts forecast that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be given a $0.33 dividend. This is a positive change from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 2nd. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.59%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.81%.

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.