Eric Savitz of Barron's gave a well-needed reminder of how cheap Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA) is over the weekend. The leading cable company, whose stock is down 16% for the year, now sells for a valuation almost equal to that of its slower growing Baby Bell competitors. It is also interesting, in this period of bankers attempting to market debt and equity for private equity transactions that cannot even cover their interest expense, that Comcast covers its interest expense some five-fold, with it jumping to 6.8x next year.
Comcast's stock has gotten hit on concerns of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) beginning to get some traction on its video deployment, which has slowed down growth of the cable giant. However, Comcast is getting five customers for each one the Baby Bell competitors are getting from the cable company.
Merrill Lynch has a twelve month price target of $38 per share, up from $23 today. Not a bad return for a high quality company that is a cash flow machine.









