Comcast (CMCSA) Stock Jumps on New Sports Deal—Because Nothing Boosts Shares Like Overpaying for Broadcast Rights

Comcast's stock gets a caffeine hit from yet another sports play—because what's a media conglomerate without bleeding cash for live games?

The cable giant's shares ticked up after locking in fresh content, proving Wall Street still bets on the old playbook: acquire, inflate, repeat.

Meanwhile, cord-cutters yawn and hit 'mute.'

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Yes, Chicago Sports Network will be on Comcast service, but it will only be on the Ultimate tier, which requires pretty much the highest level of subscription there is. Exact details of the agreement were not disclosed, but reports suggest that the Ultimate tier will add an extra $20 per month to customers’ bills, on top of the $20.25 regional sports network fee being charged to Chicagoland subscribers.

However, there is something of a plus here. Subscribers were getting a monthly credit of $8.85 from the loss of NBC Sports Chicago. For those basic subscribers that do not upgrade to the Ultimate tier and get access to Chicago Sports Network, the $8.85 credit will remain in place, and drop the regional sports fee to just $11.40 a month, which, all things considered, could be worse.

Cybersecurity Advancements

It may surprise you to note that Comcast actually has a cybersecurity arm, which is not all that surprising given its connection to online services. But it does, and that arm is known as DataBee. DataBee recently announced that it added new tools to its lineup, specifically the BluVector network detection and response (NDR) platform.

BluVector uses artificial intelligence (AI) to search networks for evidence of a variety of potential failure points. These include ransomware, zero-day exploits, malware contained in memory, and more. It inspects packets at a rate of millions per second, which allows it to be used as a real-time threat detection mechanism.

Is Comcast Stock a Good Buy Right Now?

Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on CMCSA stock based on nine Buys, 10 Holds and two Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 12.17% loss in its share price over the past year, the average CMCSA price target of $40.86 per share implies 18.23% upside potential.

Disclosure