Evercore ISI Upgrades Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to Strong-Buy

Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, November 6th. Macquarie lifted their price target on shares of Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $60.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. KeyCorp lifted their price target on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Comcast from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Comcast has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.19.

Comcast Stock Performance

NASDAQ:CMCSA opened at $43.47 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $166.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.69, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $41.98 and its 200 day simple moving average is $40.04. Comcast has a twelve month low of $36.43 and a twelve month high of $47.11.

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

Comcast Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is presently 33.33%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Comcast

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Comcast during the 1st quarter valued at about $773,000. Kestra Advisory Services LLC boosted its stake in Comcast by 4.2% during the 1st quarter. Kestra Advisory Services LLC now owns 272,668 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $11,820,000 after purchasing an additional 11,077 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC boosted its stake in Comcast by 73.6% during the 1st quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 58,428 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $2,533,000 after purchasing an additional 24,764 shares during the period. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC boosted its stake in Comcast by 1.7% during the 1st quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 1,433,773 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $62,154,000 after purchasing an additional 23,324 shares during the period. Finally, Waverly Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Comcast by 16.6% during the 1st quarter. Waverly Advisors LLC now owns 39,393 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,708,000 after purchasing an additional 5,602 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

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.