First Merchants Corp Sells 49,586 Shares of Comcast Corporation $CMCSA

First Merchants Corp cut its position in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 66.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 25,065 shares of the cable giant’s stock after selling 49,586 shares during the period. First Merchants Corp’s holdings in Comcast were worth $720,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in CMCSA. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Comcast in the 4th quarter valued at $2,498,626,000. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in Comcast by 20.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 140,343,399 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $4,194,929,000 after acquiring an additional 24,166,881 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in Comcast by 65.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 55,664,933 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,663,825,000 after acquiring an additional 21,958,603 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Comcast by 4.6% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 180,687,135 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $5,677,190,000 after acquiring an additional 7,917,335 shares during the period. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in Comcast by 2,970.5% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 7,394,728 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $221,028,000 after acquiring an additional 7,153,895 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Comcast Stock Performance

CMCSA opened at $22.32 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $79.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.39, a P/E/G ratio of 1.83 and a beta of 0.68. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $25.71 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.16. Comcast Corporation has a 1 year low of $22.13 and a 1 year high of $36.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 0.87 and a quick ratio of 0.87.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The cable giant reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $31.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $30.42 billion. Comcast had a return on equity of 15.47% and a net margin of 15.00%.Comcast’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.09 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Comcast Corporation will post 3.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Comcast Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st will be given a dividend of $0.33 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 1st. This represents a $1.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.9%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is 25.98%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on CMCSA. Wall Street Zen raised Comcast to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 14th. New Street Research decreased their price objective on Comcast from $36.00 to $31.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, April 8th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Comcast from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Comcast from $33.00 to $35.50 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, April 24th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, sixteen have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.50.

Comcast Profile

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is a diversified global media and technology company headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its principal operations are organized around Comcast Cable, which provides broadband internet, video, voice and wireless services to residential and business customers in the United States under the Xfinity and Comcast Business brands, and NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment group that develops, produces and distributes content across broadcast and cable networks, film, and streaming platforms.

NBCUniversal’s assets include the NBC broadcast network, a portfolio of cable channels, Universal Pictures and other film and television production businesses, and the Peacock streaming service.