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

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of News (NASDAQ:NWSA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 9th. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on shares of News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 target price on shares of News in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.02.

News Stock Performance

Shares of NWSA stock opened at $24.54 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $13.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.09 and a beta of 0.98. The business has a 50 day moving average of $25.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $26.54. News has a 52 week low of $22.20 and a 52 week high of $31.61. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.07. News had a return on equity of 5.94% and a net margin of 13.35%.The business had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.33 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that News will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. News’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.85%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On News

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of News by 3.6% in the second quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 121,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,610,000 after acquiring an additional 4,244 shares in the last quarter. Permanent Capital Management LP bought a new stake in News during the third quarter worth approximately $812,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in News by 22.9% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,770,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,389,000 after purchasing an additional 330,513 shares during the period. Barclays PLC lifted its position in News by 39.5% in the third 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. Finally, XTX Topco Ltd boosted its stake in News by 197.2% during the 2nd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 83,176 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,472,000 after purchasing an additional 55,185 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by 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.