Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by Argus

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) was downgraded by research analysts at Argus from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Tuesday, MarketBeat.com reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently commented on CMCSA. StockNews.com upgraded Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. KeyCorp dropped their price objective on Comcast from $47.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Rosenblatt Securities reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $36.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Macquarie lowered their price target on shares of Comcast from $42.00 to $36.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $37.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Friday, April 25th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, nine have issued a buy rating and three have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Comcast presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $42.10.

Comcast Stock Performance

CMCSA opened at $34.39 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.07 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.66. The stock has a market cap of $128.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.97. Comcast has a 1-year low of $31.44 and a 1-year high of $45.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.68.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The cable giant reported $1.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.01 by $0.08. Comcast had a net margin of 13.09% and a return on equity of 19.98%. The firm had revenue of $29.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $29.82 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.04 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Comcast will post 4.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Promus Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Comcast during the fourth quarter worth about $25,000. Winch Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in Comcast by 269.9% during the 4th quarter. Winch Advisory Services LLC now owns 688 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 502 shares during the last quarter. Inlight Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in Comcast during the 1st quarter worth approximately $26,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Comcast in the 4th quarter worth approximately $27,000. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Comcast in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 84.32% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.