Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. lowered its stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 7.6% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 5,584 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 457 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $242,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Greenwich Wealth Management LLC now owns 8,492 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $372,000 after acquiring an additional 219 shares during the last quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. grew its position in Comcast by 17.5% during the 4th quarter. Legend Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 1,478 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 220 shares during the last quarter. Beaumont Asset Management L.L.C. increased its stake in Comcast by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Beaumont Asset Management L.L.C. now owns 14,141 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $620,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Keystone Financial Services increased its stake in Comcast by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Keystone Financial Services now owns 20,432 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $896,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bollard Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Comcast by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Bollard Group LLC now owns 36,996 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,622,000 after buying an additional 244 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup cut their target price on Comcast from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 29th. Pivotal Research dropped their target price on Comcast from $48.00 to $47.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. KeyCorp decreased their price objective on shares of Comcast from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $49.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their price target on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $46.96.

Insider Transactions at Comcast

In related news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 3,176,923 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.19, for a total value of $10,134,384.37. Following the sale, the insider now owns 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,380,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.26% of the company’s stock.

Comcast Trading Up 3.8 %

Shares of Comcast stock opened at $39.69 on Friday. Comcast Co. has a fifty-two week low of $36.43 and a fifty-two week high of $47.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $155.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.50, a PEG ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $38.53 and a 200 day moving average of $40.65.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 23rd. The cable giant reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.09. Comcast had a net margin of 12.46% and a return on equity of 20.17%. The firm had revenue of $29.69 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.13 EPS. Comcast’s revenue was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Comcast Co. will post 4.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 32.80%.

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.