Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd Sells 40,000 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd lessened its stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 15.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 212,274 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 40,000 shares during the period. Dai ichi Life Insurance Company Ltd’s holdings in Comcast were worth $9,308,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CMCSA. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Comcast during the 4th quarter worth approximately $2,542,988,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 39.7% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,065,475 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $446,303,000 after purchasing an additional 2,861,358 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 663.0% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 2,401,702 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $105,315,000 after purchasing an additional 2,086,950 shares during the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 43.3% in the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 6,311,296 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $279,843,000 after purchasing an additional 1,907,973 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Comcast by 422.9% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,678,815 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $73,616,000 after purchasing an additional 1,357,756 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CMCSA has been the subject of several research reports. Citigroup reduced their price objective on Comcast from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 29th. StockNews.com lowered Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on Comcast from $47.00 to $43.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 26th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Redburn Atlantic downgraded Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $50.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.33.

Comcast Stock Performance

Shares of CMCSA stock traded down $0.20 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $39.01. 6,212,687 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,508,240. Comcast Co. has a 12 month low of $36.43 and a 12 month high of $47.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a current ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market capitalization of $153.06 billion, a PE ratio of 10.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.99. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $40.46 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $42.11.

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

Comcast Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.18%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.80%.

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.