Loomis Sayles & Co. L P Raises Stock Position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Loomis Sayles & Co. L P raised its stake in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 30.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 427,120 shares of the cable giant’s stock after buying an additional 98,605 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P’s holdings in Comcast were worth $17,841,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd lifted its position in Comcast by 50.2% during the third quarter. Harvest Fund Management Co. Ltd now owns 177,945 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $7,433,000 after purchasing an additional 59,504 shares in the last quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 1.1% in the third quarter. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC now owns 44,308 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,851,000 after buying an additional 475 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Comcast by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 734,261 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $30,670,000 after buying an additional 65,939 shares in the last quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Hartford Funds Management Co LLC now owns 17,272 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $721,000 after acquiring an additional 1,306 shares during the period. Finally, Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. purchased a new stake in Comcast in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $333,000. 84.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Comcast Price Performance

Shares of Comcast stock opened at $42.64 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $163.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.72 and a current ratio of 0.72. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $42.13 and a 200-day moving average price of $40.11. Comcast Co. has a one year low of $36.43 and a one year high of $47.11.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The cable giant reported $1.12 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.06 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $32.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $31.78 billion. Comcast had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.81%. The business’s revenue was up 6.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.08 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.26 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, January 8th will be paid a $0.31 dividend. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.91%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, January 8th. Comcast’s payout ratio is currently 33.33%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on CMCSA. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $60.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, November 19th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Barclays boosted their price target on Comcast from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Comcast from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.19.

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.