Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.09 EPS

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The cable giant reported $1.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.09, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $29.69 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $30.02 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 20.20% and a net margin of 12.46%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.13 EPS.

Comcast Price Performance

Shares of Comcast stock traded up $0.66 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $38.75. 6,339,919 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,417,613. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 0.59 and a quick ratio of 0.59. The firm has a market cap of $152.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.08, a PEG ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 1.00. Comcast has a 52 week low of $36.43 and a 52 week high of $47.46. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $38.55 and a 200-day simple moving average of $40.71.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.20%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.80%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CMCSA has been the topic of several research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on Comcast in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $44.00 target price on the stock. KeyCorp dropped their target price on Comcast from $45.00 to $44.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Comcast from $50.00 to $47.25 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 26th. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Monday, May 13th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Comcast has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $47.28.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Comcast news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 3,176,923 shares of Comcast stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $3.19, for a total value of $10,134,384.37. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 2,000,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,380,000. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.26% of the stock is owned by corporate 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.