Wall Street Zen Upgrades News (NASDAQ:NWSA) to “Buy”

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday.

NWSA has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup reduced their target price on News from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $34.00 price target on shares of News in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. Weiss Ratings lowered News from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Zacks Research raised News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.14.

News Stock Performance

Shares of NWSA stock opened at $25.92 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.40. News has a one year low of $22.20 and a one year high of $31.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.19 billion, a PE ratio of 12.90 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.59.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.05. News had a return on equity of 6.12% and a net margin of 12.92%.The business had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.17 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that News will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On News

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp grew its holdings in News by 16.5% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,673,000 after buying an additional 4,448,929 shares in the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP grew its holdings in News by 4.0% during the fourth quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 29,934,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $781,877,000 after buying an additional 1,137,691 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in News by 39.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $456,830,000 after buying an additional 4,214,562 shares in the last quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP grew its holdings in News by 10.7% during the third quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 14,009,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,224,000 after buying an additional 1,358,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in News by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,458,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,169,000 after buying an additional 88,157 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

News Company Profile

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.