Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Sells 32,570 Shares of News Corporation $NWSA

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC decreased its stake in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 75.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 10,422 shares of the company’s stock after selling 32,570 shares during the quarter. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in News were worth $272,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NWSA. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in News by 488.0% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,124,507 shares of the company’s stock worth $241,054,000 after acquiring an additional 6,742,836 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of News by 16.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $965,673,000 after acquiring an additional 4,448,929 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of News by 39.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,214,562 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of News by 46.6% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,706,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $236,662,000 after purchasing an additional 2,449,552 shares during the period. Finally, Independent Franchise Partners LLP grew its stake in News by 7.3% in the second quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 29,170,531 shares of the company’s stock worth $866,948,000 after purchasing an additional 1,980,941 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

News Stock Down 0.9%

News stock opened at $24.71 on Thursday. News Corporation has a twelve month low of $22.20 and a twelve month high of $31.61. The business has a fifty day moving average of $24.34 and a two-hundred day moving average of $25.93. The firm has a market cap of $13.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.17 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. News had a return on equity of 5.94% and a net margin of 13.35%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup decreased their target price on News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 target price on shares of News in a report on Friday, February 6th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, News currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.02.

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.