Analysts Set News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) PT at $37.95

Shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has given a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $37.95.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Guggenheim dropped their target price on shares of News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of News in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Zacks Research cut shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd.

News Trading Down 0.6%

NWSA stock opened at $26.08 on Wednesday. News has a 52 week low of $23.38 and a 52 week high of $31.61. The company has a market cap of $14.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.60 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.00 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.07.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. News had a return on equity of 5.68% and a net margin of 13.80%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 16.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.21 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that News will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On News

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FNY Investment Advisers LLC acquired a new position in News during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $320,000. Allworth Financial LP lifted its position in shares of News by 62.8% during the third quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 5,472 shares of the company’s stock worth $168,000 after purchasing an additional 2,111 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment boosted its stake in shares of News by 23.0% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 17,830 shares of the company’s stock valued at $548,000 after purchasing an additional 3,330 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in News by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,770,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,389,000 after purchasing an additional 330,513 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its stake in News by 153.3% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 5,307 shares of the company’s stock worth $163,000 after buying an additional 3,212 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About News

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA) is a global diversified media and information services company headquartered in New York City. It operates through two principal segments: News and Information Services, and Digital Real Estate Services. The company’s news and information division oversees a portfolio of leading newspapers, magazines and digital platforms, offering content across print and online channels. Its properties include Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, News UK titles such as The Times and The Sun, as well as News Corp Australia mastheads.

In addition to its journalism assets, News Corp is a significant player in book publishing through HarperCollins, one of the world’s largest consumer publishers.