Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC Decreases Stock Holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC decreased its position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 4.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 11,581 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 541 shares during the quarter. Exencial Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $435,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Comcast by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 32,709,601 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,227,591,000 after buying an additional 838,366 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System increased its position in shares of Comcast by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 1,106,289 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $41,519,000 after buying an additional 54,200 shares during the period. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. increased its position in shares of Comcast by 39.5% during the fourth quarter. Reaves W H & Co. Inc. now owns 2,184,079 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $81,968,000 after buying an additional 617,932 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC increased its position in shares of Comcast by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 625,008 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $23,457,000 after buying an additional 1,796 shares during the period. Finally, Gryphon Financial Partners LLC increased its position in shares of Comcast by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Gryphon Financial Partners LLC now owns 44,086 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,655,000 after buying an additional 3,719 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on CMCSA. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $38.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $44.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Loop Capital reduced their price target on shares of Comcast from $54.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Benchmark decreased their target price on shares of Comcast from $57.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Comcast has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.83.

Comcast Trading Up 0.2 %

Shares of CMCSA stock opened at $35.56 on Thursday. Comcast Co. has a 12-month low of $32.50 and a 12-month high of $45.31. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $36.17 and its 200 day moving average is $39.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $134.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.57, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.00.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.88 by $0.08. Comcast had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 19.98%. Research analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 3.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 2nd. This is a boost from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 31.81%.

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.