Westwood Holdings Group Inc. Sells 457 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Westwood Holdings Group Inc. reduced its stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 7.6% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,584 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 457 shares during the quarter. Westwood Holdings Group Inc.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $242,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wealthspire Advisors LLC grew its position in Comcast by 4.8% in the fourth 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 in the last quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Comcast by 1.5% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Brevan Howard Capital Management LP bought a new stake in Comcast during the fourth quarter worth about $2,056,000. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in Comcast by 10.5% during the fourth quarter. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC now owns 115,503 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $5,065,000 after purchasing an additional 10,936 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Comcast by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 11,304,304 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $495,694,000 after purchasing an additional 368,685 shares in the last quarter. 84.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CMCSA shares. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research report on Monday, May 13th. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of Comcast from $50.00 to $48.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 2nd. Macquarie reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $40.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on Comcast from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 29th. One equities 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.96.

Comcast Price Performance

Comcast stock opened at $39.69 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $38.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.65. The firm has a market cap of $155.73 billion, a PE ratio of 10.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.05 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.59. Comcast Co. has a one year low of $36.43 and a one year high of $47.46.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The cable giant reported $1.21 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.09. The business 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 20.17% and a net margin of 12.46%. Comcast’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.13 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 2nd will be issued a dividend of $0.31 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.24 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.12%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.80%.

Insider Activity at Comcast

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