Lord Abbett & CO. LLC Sells 3,150,858 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Lord Abbett & CO. LLC cut its stake in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 62.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,907,387 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 3,150,858 shares during the quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $79,672,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Comcast by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Koshinski Asset Management Inc. now owns 30,584 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,277,000 after purchasing an additional 249 shares in the last quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Comcast by 2.9% during the third quarter. Taurus Asset Management LLC now owns 9,125 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $381,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Comcast by 3.1% during the third quarter. Regent Peak Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,445 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $353,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares in the last quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in Comcast by 4.7% in the third quarter. Abich Financial Wealth Management LLC now owns 5,829 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $243,000 after purchasing an additional 260 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Greenwich Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Comcast by 2.7% in the second quarter. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,754 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $382,000 after buying an additional 261 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on CMCSA. Benchmark reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on Comcast from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Macquarie raised their price target on Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Pivotal Research boosted their price target on Comcast from $47.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Scotiabank raised Comcast from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $47.75 to $48.00 in a research note on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $47.19.

Comcast Price Performance

Shares of Comcast stock opened at $39.92 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $42.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $40.32. Comcast Co. has a twelve month low of $36.43 and a twelve month high of $47.11. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $152.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.73, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.99.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. The business had revenue of $32.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.78 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.81% and a net margin of 11.92%. The company’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.08 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Comcast Co. will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be given a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.11%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 33.33%.

Insider Activity at Comcast

In related news, CEO Brian L. Roberts sold 234,464 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 6,669,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $284,539,128.48. The trade was a 3.40 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 25,537 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, November 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.59, for a total transaction of $1,087,620.83. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 534,849 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,779,218.91. The trade was a 4.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 1.26% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.