Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC Has $722,000 Stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC reduced its holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 79.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 19,232 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 74,435 shares during the quarter. Meridian Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $722,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Comcast by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 476,352 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $19,897,000 after purchasing an additional 12,009 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Comcast by 10.6% during the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 497,251 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $21,834,000 after buying an additional 47,631 shares in the last quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC increased its stake in Comcast by 3.4% during the third quarter. CFS Investment Advisory Services LLC now owns 32,592 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,361,000 after acquiring an additional 1,081 shares during the period. Allen Capital Group LLC acquired a new position in Comcast in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $234,000. Finally, GM Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Comcast by 5.3% in the 3rd quarter. GM Advisory Group LLC now owns 10,942 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $457,000 after acquiring an additional 547 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on CMCSA. Macquarie lowered their price objective on Comcast from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Scotiabank lowered shares of Comcast from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $48.00 to $44.50 in a report on Monday, February 3rd. Benchmark reduced their price objective on shares of Comcast from $57.00 to $55.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of Comcast from $54.00 to $53.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $50.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.83.

Comcast Stock Performance

Comcast stock opened at $36.75 on Friday. Comcast Co. has a 12-month low of $32.50 and a 12-month high of $45.31. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.68, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $138.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.86, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 1.00.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 earnings per share 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%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.59%. This is a positive change from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 2nd. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 31.81%.

About Comcast

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.