Man Group plc Raises Stock Holdings in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Man Group plc grew its stake in Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 785.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,298,755 shares of the cable giant’s stock after buying an additional 2,039,287 shares during the quarter. Man Group plc’s holdings in Comcast were worth $86,272,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CMCSA. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast during the fourth quarter worth about $3,835,226,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Comcast during the fourth quarter worth about $743,681,000. Amundi grew its position in shares of Comcast by 147.9% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 24,086,671 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $895,499,000 after purchasing an additional 14,369,056 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Comcast by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 141,680,277 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $5,317,167,000 after purchasing an additional 11,255,683 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Comcast by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 50,320,446 shares of the cable giant’s stock worth $1,890,027,000 after purchasing an additional 5,402,377 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.32% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on CMCSA shares. BNP Paribas cut Comcast from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $31.00 price target for the company. in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Bank of America cut Comcast from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $50.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, January 31st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on Comcast from $45.00 to $39.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 31st. Oppenheimer cut their price target on Comcast from $55.00 to $38.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 25th. Finally, KeyCorp cut their price target on Comcast from $47.00 to $45.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 14th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and three have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $42.10.

Comcast Price Performance

Shares of CMCSA stock opened at $34.79 on Wednesday. Comcast Co. has a 52-week low of $31.44 and a 52-week high of $45.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.68 and a current ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $129.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.78 and a beta of 0.97. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $34.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $37.44.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The cable giant reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.01 by $0.08. Comcast had a return on equity of 19.98% and a net margin of 13.09%. The firm had revenue of $29.89 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $29.82 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.04 EPS. Comcast’s quarterly revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Comcast Co. will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

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.