Heartland Bank & Trust Co Makes New $748,000 Investment in Comcast Corporation $CMCSA

Heartland Bank & Trust Co bought a new stake in Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 23,811 shares of the cable giant’s stock, valued at approximately $748,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Comcast by 0.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 369,438,921 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $13,185,275,000 after acquiring an additional 1,257,196 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Comcast by 2.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 172,769,800 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $6,166,154,000 after purchasing an additional 4,231,140 shares in the last quarter. Dodge & Cox grew its holdings in shares of Comcast by 18.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 111,272,320 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $3,971,309,000 after purchasing an additional 17,054,579 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Comcast during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,528,361,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Comcast by 7.5% in the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 36,154,170 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,289,984,000 after purchasing an additional 2,517,906 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CMCSA has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded shares of Comcast from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $31.00 to $37.00 in a report on Monday, January 12th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on Comcast from $32.00 to $31.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. Oppenheimer set a $38.00 price target on Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, November 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein reduced their price target on Comcast from $34.00 to $32.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Comcast from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 30th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.90.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Michael J. Cavanagh sold 57,947 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.66, for a total transaction of $1,892,549.02. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 622,336 shares in the company, valued at $20,325,493.76. This represents a 8.52% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.32% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Comcast Price Performance

Comcast stock opened at $31.34 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $29.71 and its 200 day moving average is $30.07. Comcast Corporation has a one year low of $25.75 and a one year high of $37.97. The firm has a market cap of $112.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The cable giant reported $0.84 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $32.31 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $32.35 billion. Comcast had a net margin of 16.17% and a return on equity of 16.86%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.96 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Comcast Corporation will post 4.33 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st will be given a $0.33 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 1st. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.2%. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.58%.

About Comcast

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.