Baird Financial Group Inc. Buys 6,964 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA – Get Rating) by 0.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,086,870 shares of the cable giant’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,964 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $31,877,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Comcast by 2.2% in the second quarter. Kolinsky Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,749 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $540,000 after purchasing an additional 291 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Comcast by 0.3% in the 2nd quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 91,475 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $3,589,000 after buying an additional 298 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of Comcast by 1.2% during the third quarter. Kovack Advisors Inc. now owns 25,912 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $760,000 after buying an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA increased its stake in shares of Comcast by 2.5% during the third quarter. Beach Investment Counsel Inc. PA now owns 13,036 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $382,000 after buying an additional 319 shares during the period. Finally, Financial Advocates Investment Management raised its holdings in Comcast by 4.8% in the second quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 7,312 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $287,000 after acquiring an additional 333 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.23% of the company’s stock.

Comcast Price Performance

CMCSA stock opened at $35.28 on Wednesday. Comcast Co. has a 1 year low of $28.39 and a 1 year high of $48.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $38.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.09. The firm has a market cap of $148.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.65, a PEG ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 1.00.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 26th. The cable giant reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $30.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $30.36 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 18.40% and a net margin of 4.42%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.77 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Comcast Co. will post 3.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, April 5th will be issued a $0.29 dividend. This is an increase from Comcast’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 4th. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is currently 90.76%.

Insider Activity at Comcast

In other news, major shareholder Corp Comcast sold 1,610,496 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $2.38, for a total transaction of $3,832,980.48. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 25,153,615 shares in the company, valued at $59,865,603.70. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In the last three months, insiders sold 7,527,791 shares of company stock worth $19,025,007. Corporate insiders own 1.11% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have commented on CMCSA shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of Comcast from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. Rosenblatt Securities increased their target price on Comcast from $32.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. Pivotal Research lifted their price target on Comcast from $42.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 27th. KGI Securities downgraded Comcast from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 22nd. Finally, TheStreet upgraded Comcast from a “c” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 26th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $44.29.

About Comcast

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Comcast Corp. engages in the provision of video, Internet, and phone services. It operates through the following segments: Cable Communications, Media, Studios, Theme Parks, and Sky. The Cable Communications segment consists of Comcast Cable, which is a provider of broadband, video, voice, wireless, and other services to residential customers in the United States under the Xfinity brand.