Comcast cable spinoff ‘makes little financial sense,’ says Barclays

Barclays says Comcast’s (CMCSA) expected standalone spinoff of its cable network business “makes little financial sense and could be motivated by a desire to overcome regulatory hurdles for potentially larger deals in cable.” The spin could also put the new entity in a precarious position given that it will be subscale from a revenue, EBITDA and cash flow perspective to deal with ongoing structural issues, the analyst tells investors in a research note. Barclays says this is why “it is tough to see this as anything other than potentially the first step of other larger initiatives at some point.” It keeps an Equal Weight rating on Comcast with a $42 price target