...NEW YORK (S&P Global Ratings) Feb. 5, 2018--S&P Global Ratings said today that its ratings and outlook on Comcast Corp. (A-/Stable/A-2) are not affected by CFO Mike Cavanagh's statement regarding the company's leverage target in light of its improved cash flow from lower taxes. During Comcast's recent fourth-quarter 2017 earnings call, Mr. Cavanagh stated: "[W]e've had a net leverage ratio of around 2.2x for a while now, higher than the 1.5x to 2x range that was in place as I arrived several years ago. Since then, we bought the Japan Park and DreamWorks while keeping our dividend growing and our buyback steady. Now given the higher conversion rate of EBITDA to free cash flow resulting from tax reform, I don't expect we would need to see our leverage ratio decline below around 2.2x in order to be very confident in the strength of our balance sheet, hence the guidance of a minimum of $5 billion in buybacks in 2018." A number of sell-side equity analysts and buy-side investors took this to...
