Comcast Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NASDAQ:CMCSA)

Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ:CMCSA) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 147,928 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 370% compared to the average volume of 31,467 call options.

Institutional Trading of Comcast

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Comcast by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 369,311,219 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $11,038,712,000 after acquiring an additional 2,160,829 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Comcast by 9.7% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,536,937 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $236,810,000 after acquiring an additional 665,635 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its position in Comcast by 75.3% in the third quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 340,764 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $10,707,000 after purchasing an additional 146,339 shares during the period. Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd raised its position in Comcast by 1.0% in the third quarter. Rothschild & Co Wealth Management UK Ltd now owns 11,327,445 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $355,908,000 after purchasing an additional 113,461 shares during the period. Finally, Candriam S.C.A. raised its position in Comcast by 3.5% in the third quarter. Candriam S.C.A. now owns 952,154 shares of the cable giant’s stock valued at $29,917,000 after purchasing an additional 32,262 shares during the period. 84.32% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on CMCSA shares. BNP Paribas Exane reduced their price target on Comcast from $26.00 to $25.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 8th. Rosenblatt Securities reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $30.00 price target on shares of Comcast in a research report on Friday, January 30th. UBS Group reduced their price target on Comcast from $36.00 to $32.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Evercore increased their price target on Comcast from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Comcast to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 14th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, fifteen have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.79.

Comcast Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ:CMCSA traded down $0.03 on Thursday, hitting $24.86. 9,874,667 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 33,130,902. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $27.96 and its 200 day moving average is $28.66. The company has a market capitalization of $88.79 billion, a PE ratio of 4.89, a P/E/G ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.71. Comcast has a 1-year low of $24.53 and a 1-year high of $36.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87.

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 23rd. The cable giant reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.73 by $0.06. The business 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%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.09 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Comcast will post 3.58 EPS for the current year.

Comcast Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 22nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, July 1st will be given a dividend of $0.33 per share. This represents a $1.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 1st. Comcast’s dividend payout ratio is currently 25.98%.

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.