News (NASDAQ:NWS) Downgraded by Zacks Research to Hold

Zacks Research cut shares of News (NASDAQ:NWS) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Monday morning,Zacks reports.

Separately, Weiss Ratings raised shares of News from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

News Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NWS opened at $31.52 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $33.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $30.92. News has a 1-year low of $25.49 and a 1-year high of $35.76. The firm has a market cap of $17.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.60 and a beta of 0.96.

News (NASDAQ:NWS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.11. News had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 6.35%.The firm had revenue of $2.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.25 billion. Analysts anticipate that News will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a dividend yield of 60.0%. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.42%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On News

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. CX Institutional grew its holdings in shares of News by 47.9% in the third quarter. CX Institutional now owns 9,863 shares of the company’s stock worth $313,000 after purchasing an additional 3,194 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new position in shares of News in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new stake in shares of News during the 2nd quarter valued at $4,449,000. Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in News by 79.4% in the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,717 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 760 shares during the period. Finally, Nykredit A S bought a new position in shares of News during the second quarter valued at approximately $129,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 14.63% of the company’s stock.

News Company Profile

News Corp (NASDAQ: NWS) is a global diversified media and information services company headquartered in New York. Its businesses produce and distribute news, financial information, books, digital content and real estate listings across multiple platforms and geographies.

The company’s principal operations include Dow Jones, which provides business news, financial data and professional information services through publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s; News Corp Australia and News UK, which operate newspapers, digital news properties and other media brands; and HarperCollins Publishers, a global publisher of books in a broad range of categories.