Hills Bank & Trust Co Grows Stock Position in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Hills Bank & Trust Co boosted its stake in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 71,614 shares of the cable giant’s stock after purchasing an additional 709 shares during the period. Hills Bank & Trust Co’s holdings in Comcast were worth $3,140,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Wealthspire Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Comcast by 4.8% in the 4th quarter. Wealthspire Advisors LLC now owns 60,650 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $2,659,000 after purchasing an additional 2,781 shares during the last quarter. Everett Harris & Co. CA grew its holdings in shares of Comcast by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Everett Harris & Co. CA now owns 1,687,406 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $73,993,000 after buying an additional 121,279 shares during the last quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Comcast by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 101,182 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $4,438,000 after acquiring an additional 1,486 shares during the period. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in Comcast by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 115,503 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $5,065,000 after acquiring an additional 10,936 shares during the period. Finally, Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in Comcast by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 18,761 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $823,000 after purchasing an additional 1,432 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have commented on the stock. BNP Paribas restated a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Redburn Atlantic downgraded Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $50.00 to $44.00 in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $55.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on shares of Comcast from $55.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Friday, April 5th. Finally, Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.60.

Comcast Stock Up 1.8 %

CMCSA stock traded up $0.68 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $39.22. 7,803,636 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,965,746. The company has a market cap of $153.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.35, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.59. Comcast Co. has a 1-year low of $36.43 and a 1-year high of $47.46. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.24.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 25th. The cable giant reported $1.04 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.98 by $0.06. Comcast had a return on equity of 20.10% and a net margin of 12.64%. The company had revenue of $30.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $29.83 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.92 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Comcast Co. will post 4.21 earnings per share for the current year.

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.