News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Analysts

Shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) have earned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $37.02.

Several brokerages have recently commented on NWSA. Guggenheim decreased 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. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price target on shares of News in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings downgraded News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen lowered News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday.

Institutional Trading of News

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in News by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 42,496 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,305,000 after purchasing an additional 395 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC boosted its position in News by 2.9% during the third quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 14,276 shares of the company’s stock worth $438,000 after acquiring an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank grew its holdings in News by 0.6% in the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 74,022 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,200,000 after purchasing an additional 445 shares during the period. Kaufman Rossin Wealth LLC increased its stake in News by 4.3% during the third quarter. Kaufman Rossin Wealth LLC now owns 11,161 shares of the company’s stock worth $343,000 after acquiring an additional 465 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of News by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 36,568 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,123,000 after acquiring an additional 481 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

News Stock Performance

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $24.62 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $13.67 billion, a PE ratio of 12.13 and a beta of 0.98. News has a twelve month low of $22.20 and a twelve month high of $31.61. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $26.57. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.30 billion. News had a net margin of 13.35% and a return on equity of 5.94%. News’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that News will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. 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 9.85%.

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.