Trexquant Investment LP Sells 122,384 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Trexquant Investment LP lowered its position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 33.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 247,531 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 122,384 shares during the quarter. Trexquant Investment LP’s holdings in Comcast were worth $9,290,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of CMCSA. Benjamin Edwards Inc. boosted its position in Comcast by 290.6% in the 3rd quarter. Benjamin Edwards Inc. now owns 149,314 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $6,237,000 after buying an additional 111,092 shares during the period. Hilltop Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 72.1% in the third quarter. Hilltop Holdings Inc. now owns 31,195 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,303,000 after purchasing an additional 13,066 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in Comcast by 4.9% in the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,732,275 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $72,344,000 after purchasing an additional 80,439 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its position in Comcast by 173.6% during the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,418,064 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $59,237,000 after purchasing an additional 899,716 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ingalls & Snyder LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Comcast by 4.4% in the 3rd quarter. Ingalls & Snyder LLC now owns 33,283 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,390,000 after buying an additional 1,410 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on CMCSA. Macquarie cut their price target on Comcast from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Comcast from $42.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. BNP Paribas raised shares of Comcast from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Friday, January 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their target price on Comcast from $50.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Comcast from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Ten investment 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Comcast has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.64.

Comcast Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $36.61 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $138.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.82, a PEG 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $32.50 and a 12 month high of $45.31. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $35.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.94.

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

Comcast Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.61%. This is a boost from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 2nd. Comcast’s payout ratio is presently 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.