First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Purchases 14,211 Shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. grew its position in shares of Comcast Co. (NASDAQ:CMCSA) by 16.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 99,711 shares of the cable giant’s stock after buying an additional 14,211 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in Comcast were worth $4,372,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMCSA. Everett Harris & Co. CA grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 7.7% during the fourth quarter. Everett Harris & Co. CA now owns 1,687,406 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $73,993,000 after purchasing an additional 121,279 shares during the last quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 1.5% during the fourth quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 101,182 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $4,438,000 after purchasing an additional 1,486 shares during the last quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 8.3% during the fourth quarter. Altus Wealth Group LLC now owns 18,761 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $823,000 after purchasing an additional 1,432 shares during the last quarter. PFG Advisors grew its stake in shares of Comcast by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 23,073 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $1,012,000 after purchasing an additional 5,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hudson Bay Capital Management LP bought a new position in Comcast in the third quarter valued at approximately $8,868,000. 84.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on CMCSA shares. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $50.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $55.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of Comcast from $53.00 to $48.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $45.00 price objective on shares of Comcast in a research note on Friday, April 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $55.00 target price on shares of Comcast in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.60.

Comcast Stock Performance

Shares of CMCSA traded up $0.09 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $38.20. The stock had a trading volume of 19,736,445 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,862,834. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $42.47. Comcast Co. has a one year low of $36.43 and a one year high of $47.46. The firm has a market cap of $151.73 billion, a PE ratio of 10.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a current ratio of 0.59, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, April 25th. The cable giant reported $1.04 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.98 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $30.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $29.83 billion. Comcast had a net margin of 12.64% and a return on equity of 20.10%. Comcast’s revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.92 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Comcast Co. will post 4.21 EPS 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.