Comcast rises as BofA upgrades, citing ‘strong’ Q1, led by media turnaround

Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) shares rose more than 1% in pre-market trading on Monday as investment firm Bank of America upgraded the media and cable giant after it reported “strong” first-quarter results.
Analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich raised her rating on Comcast (CMCSA) to buy from neutral and booster her per-share price target to $49, noting that “significantly higher than projected’ results from the company’s content and experiences segment helped pace the way, suggesting that a turnaround is in order.
“In our view, [first-quarter] results reflect an inflection point as we believe CMCSA’s media operations are poised for a strong turnaround, while its connectivity business is benefitting from low churn, strong [average-revenue-per-user] increases and solid Business Services growth,” Reif Ehrlich wrote in an investor note.
Reif Ehrlich also noted that the company’s film division is “on fire,” led by “exceptionally strong” results in animation, as evidenced by last year’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and its joint deal with Nintendo (OTCPK:NTDOY) for The Super Mario Bros. movie, which recently topped $1B at the box office.
Reif Ehrlich added that Peacock should also benefit from the strong film division and the company’s Theme Parks unit is likely to be supported by that, while the advertising market has shown signs of stabilization and “upside potential” in the second-half of the year.
Analysts are largely bullish on Comcast (CMCSA). It has a BUY rating from Seeking Alpha authors, while Wall Street analysts rate it a BUY. Conversely, Seeking Alpha’s quant system, which consistently beats the market, rates CMCSA a HOLD.
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