News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of News (NASDAQ:NWSA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on NWSA. Zacks Research upgraded shares of News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price target on shares of News in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.02.

News Trading Up 0.8%

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $26.41 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.51 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.39. News has a 52 week low of $22.20 and a 52 week high of $31.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market cap of $14.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.01 and a beta of 0.91.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. News had a net margin of 13.35% and a return on equity of 5.94%. The business’s revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that News will post 0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 11th. News’s payout ratio is presently 9.85%.

Institutional Trading of News

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of News by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,673,000 after purchasing an additional 4,448,929 shares during the period. Independent Franchise Partners LLP raised its position in shares of News by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 29,934,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $781,877,000 after purchasing an additional 1,137,691 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its position in shares of News by 39.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $456,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,214,562 shares during the period. 59 North Capital Management LP raised its position in shares of News by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 14,009,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,224,000 after purchasing an additional 1,358,375 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of News by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,458,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,169,000 after acquiring an additional 88,157 shares during the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.