Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Acquires 4,375 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 57,736 shares of the cable giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,375 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $2,412,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CMCSA. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new position in Comcast during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC bought a new position in Comcast in the second quarter worth about $27,000. IAG Wealth Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Comcast by 204.7% in the second quarter. IAG Wealth Partners LLC now owns 777 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 522 shares during the period. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Comcast by 365.4% during the 3rd quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 726 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 570 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Archer Investment Corp grew its holdings in shares of Comcast by 177.1% during the 2nd quarter. Archer Investment Corp now owns 812 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 519 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on Comcast from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $47.75 to $48.00 in a research note on Friday, November 1st. StockNews.com lowered shares of Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Pivotal Research raised their target price on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Comcast from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Comcast presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $46.75.

Comcast Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $43.91 on Friday. Comcast Co. has a 52-week low of $36.43 and a 52-week high of $47.11. The stock has a market capitalization of $168.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.80, a PEG ratio of 1.71 and a beta of 1.00. 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 stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $41.18 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $39.71.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.06 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $32.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.78 billion. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.08 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.25 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be issued a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.82%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is 33.33%.

Comcast 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.