News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Raised to “Hold” at Zacks Research

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) was upgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the company. Guggenheim lowered their price objective on News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Weiss Ratings downgraded News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price target on shares of News in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on shares of News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, News has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.02.

News Price Performance

NASDAQ:NWSA opened at $24.62 on Thursday. 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 firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.67 billion, a PE ratio of 12.13 and a beta of 0.98. News has a 1-year low of $22.20 and a 1-year high of $31.61.

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On News

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hsbc Holdings PLC grew its position in shares of News by 12.6% during the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 763,163 shares of the company’s stock valued at $19,959,000 after purchasing an additional 85,624 shares in the last quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of News during the fourth quarter valued at about $9,615,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of News by 46.6% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 62,306 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,627,000 after purchasing an additional 19,810 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of News by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 8,445,993 shares of the company’s stock worth $220,609,000 after purchasing an additional 739,654 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of News by 117.0% during the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 128,599 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,359,000 after buying an additional 69,339 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is 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.