California Public Employees Retirement System Boosts Position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

California Public Employees Retirement System grew its stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 5.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 11,432,426 shares of the cable giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 581,163 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Comcast were worth $501,312,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in CMCSA. NewSquare Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Comcast by 94.1% in the third quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 623 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 302 shares in the last quarter. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. increased its stake in Comcast by 299.1% in the fourth quarter. Leith Wheeler Investment Counsel Ltd. now owns 634,727 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 475,675 shares during the last quarter. Tennessee Valley Asset Management Partners acquired a new position in Comcast in the fourth quarter valued at $34,000. Lipe & Dalton acquired a new position in Comcast in the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Finally, First Personal Financial Services acquired a new position in Comcast in the third quarter valued at $39,000. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on CMCSA. Redburn Atlantic lowered Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $50.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Comcast from $50.00 to $47.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 5th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup increased their target price on Comcast from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $49.74.

Comcast Stock Performance

Shares of Comcast stock traded up $0.33 during trading on Monday, reaching $40.57. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 24,641,877 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,715,254. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.60. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $41.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $42.70. The firm has a market cap of $161.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.98. Comcast Co. has a one year low of $36.38 and a one year high of $47.46.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 25th. The cable giant reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $31.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.41 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.75% and a net margin of 12.66%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Comcast Co. will post 4.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Comcast

In other news, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 114,749 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $46.10, for a total value of $5,289,928.90. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 1.18% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.