Comcast Corp (CMCSA)

A complicated company. It is family owned. He prefers Disney (DIS-N), because they don’t have ownership of cable TV stations. Feels Netflix is too much of a threat to TV stations. He likes part of this company, but doesn’t like the stock.

(A Top Pick April 27/16. Up 24%.) This just did a 2 for 1 stock split last week, and continues to have huge market leadership. They continue to roll out the X1 Infinity Operating system. This has a pretty captive audience and a really good subscriber rate. It should be part of everybody’s portfolio. Still a buy.

For the 1^st time in 10 years, they grew their cable subscribers. 161,000 new cable subscribers brings them to 23 million. The Internet is still growing. 1.5 million additional users last year. This is a Trump safe play by all definitions. They acquired DreamWorks. Their NBC entertainment division is kicking and firing on all cylinders. Dividend yield of 1.67%. A 2 for 1 stock split is coming up as well. (Analysts’ price target is $79.84.)

A phenomenal company. The largest cableco in the US. Very stable. It owns NBC Universal. Has a huge inventory of programming, intellectual capital and media content. He is seeing growth in cable and broadband. Broadcast isn’t growing, but cable is. One of the best managed companies in that space. Yields about 1.64%.

(A Top Pick June 4/15. Up 9.11%.) The big news is that they have recently bought DreamWorks. The largest cable operator in the US. They are upgrading all of their regions. Low volatility.

Had great earnings last night and the stock popped. They continue to deliver incredibly good growth rates. The Universal Pictures division has a great slate of movies coming up. Has low volatility combined with a pretty good dividend of 1.79%. There was news that they might be trying to acquire DreamWorks for $3 billion, about 2% of Comcast’s market cap.

Lost out on Time Warner Cable, and the market reacted favourably, so you have to wonder in retrospect if anybody thought that was actually going to happen. Likes that it is not being valued on the sum of the parts of its business. First of all its core business, being the largest cable operator in the country, is excellent. They manage it so well and it is hugely successful in its profitability and subscription growth. People seem to have forgotten about NBC Universal, the other side of the business, which he thinks is undervalued. A decent dividend of 1.7%.

(A Top Pick July 15/14. Up 4.18%.) Acquiring Time Warner Cable (TWC-N). They are looking at the landscape and realizing that it is changing. Within the framework of the incumbent cable and telecom, he feels this is in the best condition to navigate that change in the landscape.

Anything in the technology area is generally okay. Chart is showing a nice long upwards trend line. He likes the look of it.

(Top Pick Jul 15/14, Up 0.51%) Still thinks the Time Warner Cable goes through. There are revenue synergies. Thinks there are going to be share buybacks. It should get re-rated as the cash flow starts to grow. This will be a 2016/17 story.

The issue people have worried about is over the top and core cutting, and what that means for the traditional cable business. They have shown that to have the pipeline infrastructure, the last mile connection to the house, is still very critical. Signed a deal with Netflix to substantiate that. Largest US cable/broadcast operator. Thinks the Time Warner acquisition is done. Yield of 1.65%. A $70 stock in 2017.

Has a difficult time with this company because it doesn’t earn a lot of money and from a FMV point of view the stock is expensive.

What we are having right now is a global economic recovery. Consumer Staple companies had performed well in 2007-2008, now we are in a position worldwide where there is lots of money floating around. People have money now to do things that they never had a chance before and consumer discretionary stocks have done extremely well and will continue to do so.

Do you like the US entertainment and media sector such as Comcast (CMCSA-Q) and Time Warner (TWX-N)? A great area to be looking at right now. Everything now is about content and the media companies are the guys at control content. There are going to be more acquisitions and you want to own the right properties. (See Top Picks.)

Has owned it but exited. It approached target price. They have cable and interesting content. More upside elsewhere.