News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Stock Rating Cut to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of News (NASDAQ:NWSA) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

NWSA has been the topic of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of News from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Weiss Ratings upgraded News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Raymond James Financial began coverage on News in a report on Monday, October 19th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $35.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $35.00 price target on shares of News in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of News from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, News presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.80.

News Trading Down 1.1%

NWSA stock opened at $30.74 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. News has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $31.66. The firm has a market cap of $16.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.84 and a beta of 0.97.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.14. The company had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.25 billion. News had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 6.35%. News’s quarterly revenue was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that News will post 1.30 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a yield of 68.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 9th. News’s dividend payout ratio is 19.42%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in News by 41.0% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 216,552 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,377,000 after buying an additional 62,999 shares during the last quarter. Nykredit A S purchased a new stake in shares of News during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,807,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new position in shares of News during the 2nd quarter worth $2,845,000. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in shares of News by 120.6% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 2,326,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,002,000 after buying an additional 1,272,083 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Andra AP fonden boosted its position in shares of News by 1,767.4% in the 2nd quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 268,900 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,677,000 after buying an additional 254,500 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

News Company Profile

News Corp is a global media and information-services company whose Class A common stock trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol NWSA. The company operates a portfolio of businesses spanning digital and print publishing, subscription products, professional information, real estate services and book publishing.

Its principal businesses include Dow Jones, which provides financial news, data, research and professional information through publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s; News Corp Australia and News UK, which operate newspapers and digital news platforms; and HarperCollins Publishers, which publishes fiction, nonfiction, educational and religious titles.