Aviva PLC Acquires 156,986 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Aviva PLC grew its holdings in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 7.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 2,327,702 shares of the cable giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 156,986 shares during the period. Aviva PLC owned about 0.06% of Comcast worth $87,359,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Janus Henderson Group PLC raised its holdings 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 worth $59,237,000 after purchasing an additional 899,716 shares during the last quarter. Morse Asset Management Inc bought a new position in Comcast during the third quarter worth $451,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd acquired a new position in Comcast in the third quarter valued at $1,535,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC bought a new stake in Comcast during the third quarter valued at $30,000. Finally, Sora Investors LLC acquired a new stake in Comcast during the 3rd quarter worth about $25,998,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CMCSA. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $38.00 price objective on Comcast in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Macquarie dropped 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. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Comcast from $47.00 to $40.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 25th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Comcast from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $48.00 to $44.50 in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Comcast from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $35.00 price target for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Comcast presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $43.08.

Comcast Stock Performance

NASDAQ CMCSA opened at $33.38 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $35.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $38.87. The firm has a market cap of $126.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.04, a PEG ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.68. Comcast Co. has a 1 year low of $32.50 and a 1 year high of $45.31.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.88 by $0.08. Comcast had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 19.98%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal 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 given a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 2nd. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.95%. This is a boost from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. Comcast’s payout ratio 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.