Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Cut to “Equal Weight” at Morgan Stanley

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) was downgraded by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a report released on Monday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $45.00 price objective on the cable giant’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $48.00. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 15.98% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $47.75 to $48.00 in a research report on Friday, November 1st. KeyCorp raised their price objective on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Pivotal Research raised their price objective on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Comcast presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.06.

Comcast Stock Performance

Shares of CMCSA opened at $38.80 on Monday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $42.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $40.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $148.47 billion, a PE ratio of 10.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 0.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. Comcast has a 52-week low of $36.43 and a 52-week high of $47.11.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.06. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. The firm had revenue of $32.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.78 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.08 EPS. Comcast’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Comcast will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Comcast news, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 25,537 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.59, for a total value of $1,087,620.83. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 534,849 shares in the company, valued at $22,779,218.91. The trade was a 4.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian L. Roberts sold 234,464 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.66, for a total transaction of $10,002,234.24. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6,669,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $284,539,128.48. This trade represents a 3.40 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Comcast

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its position in shares of Comcast by 55,334.5% in the third quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 8,273,052 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $345,565,000 after purchasing an additional 8,258,128 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Comcast by 5.4% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 117,420,328 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $4,904,647,000 after purchasing an additional 6,062,658 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Comcast by 92.1% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,722,620 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $339,223,000 after purchasing an additional 4,182,525 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its position in shares of Comcast by 530.5% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 3,429,298 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $143,242,000 after purchasing an additional 2,885,370 shares during the period. Finally, Darsana Capital Partners LP raised its position in shares of Comcast by 26.7% in the second quarter. Darsana Capital Partners LP now owns 9,500,000 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $372,020,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000,000 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.