Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Cuts Stock Position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 3.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,545,328 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 53,600 shares during the period. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC’s holdings in Comcast were worth $57,996,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMCSA. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in shares of Comcast by 173.6% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 1,418,064 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $59,237,000 after purchasing an additional 899,716 shares during the period. Morse Asset Management Inc acquired a new position in Comcast in the 3rd quarter worth $451,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Comcast in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,535,000. Safe Harbor Fiduciary LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Comcast during the third quarter valued at about $30,000. Finally, Sora Investors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast during the third quarter worth about $25,998,000. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CMCSA shares. StockNews.com upgraded Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Comcast from $42.00 to $37.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Bank of America cut shares of Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $50.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, January 31st. Sanford C. Bernstein set a $38.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Scotiabank lowered shares of Comcast from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their target price for the company from $48.00 to $44.50 in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Comcast currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $43.08.

Comcast Stock Down 6.6 %

Comcast stock opened at $33.38 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.68. Comcast Co. has a one year low of $32.50 and a one year high of $45.31. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.76 and a 200-day simple moving average of $38.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $126.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.04, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.94.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The cable giant reported $0.96 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 2nd will be paid a $0.33 dividend. This is a boost from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 2nd. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.95%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio 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.