First Interstate Bank Sells 2,469 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

First Interstate Bank lessened its holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 3.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 76,814 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 2,469 shares during the period. First Interstate Bank’s holdings in Comcast were worth $3,368,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Tyche Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast in the fourth quarter worth $955,000. Arbor Trust Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Comcast by 12.9% in the fourth quarter. Arbor Trust Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 19,300 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $846,000 after purchasing an additional 2,205 shares in the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Comcast by 20.6% in the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,640 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $589,000 after purchasing an additional 2,329 shares in the last quarter. Lipe & Dalton purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast in the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Finally, Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. increased its stake 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 worth $4,438,000 after purchasing an additional 1,486 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on CMCSA shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of 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 reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $55.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Citigroup raised their target price on shares of Comcast from $51.00 to $53.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 30th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Comcast from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities increased their price objective on shares of Comcast from $44.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, December 22nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $49.50.

Comcast Stock Performance

CMCSA stock traded down $0.31 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $39.12. The company had a trading volume of 18,926,754 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,685,482. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $42.08 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.83. The company has a market cap of $155.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.96 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 0.60 and a current ratio of 0.60. Comcast Co. has a twelve month low of $36.38 and a twelve month high of $47.46.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 25th. The cable giant reported $0.84 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.80 by $0.04. Comcast had a net margin of 12.66% and a return on equity of 19.75%. The company had revenue of $31.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.41 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 4.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.31 per share. This represents a $1.24 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.17%. This is a boost from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 2nd. Comcast’s payout ratio is presently 33.33%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Comcast

In related news, President Michael J. Cavanagh sold 114,749 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.10, for a total value of $5,289,928.90. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 1.18% of the company’s stock.

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.