This should have been better news for communications giant Comcast (CMCSA), as it made a deal with Israeli technology firm DriveNets to bring its technology to Comcast’s operations. But investors were not exactly happy about the move, and sent Comcast shares slipping fractionally in Monday afternoon’s trading.
DriveNets’ technology could represent a major advance for the Comcast network. With DriveNets technology, which calls on virtualization systems and artificial intelligence (AI) tools, Comcast’s network infrastructure will get a substantial boost in terms of overall efficiency. That in turn is likely to improve performance and, potentially, network uptime.
Trial versions of the DriveNets integration have already begun. In fact, Comcast tested the network operation back in September in Atlanta, where all seems to have worked out. Comcast knows that its value as an Internet service provider is really only on the rise; it noted that the “…five biggest moments ever on our network happened in the final six weeks of 2024.” With more data flowing to more customers, and higher speeds called for, it is clear that Internet service providers need to step up their operations or risk falling behind to those who do.
Stepping up Their Operations
Meanwhile, recent reports that noted that Verizon (VZ) was stepping up access to satellite messaging were not lost on Comcast. Where Verizon offered access to satellite text messaging for certain smartphone users, Comcast turned around and made the exact same offer to the exact same phone holders.
Now, Comcast mobile service users will be able to send text messages via satellite, which will badly reduce—or potentially eliminate, for the most part—the notion of a dead zone is very much on the decline. Of course, much in the same way that Verizon’s rollout came, the new feature will not be available all at once. Rather, the service will be made available “in the coming weeks,” which basically means “eventually, probably.”
Is Comcast Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on CMCSA stock based on 10 Buys and nine Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 11.18% loss in its share price over the past year, the average CMCSA price target of $41.58 per share implies 13.27% upside potential.
See more CMCSA analyst ratings
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