Zacks Research Upgrades News (NASDAQ:NWSA) to Strong-Buy

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) was upgraded by research analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on NWSA. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 price objective on shares of News in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. Weiss Ratings raised News from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Citigroup cut their price target on News from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 16th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.14.

News Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of NWSA traded down $0.12 on Thursday, reaching $27.37. The stock had a trading volume of 2,165,762 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,756,671. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.62 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $26.21 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.47. News has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $31.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a current ratio of 1.70.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NWSA. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its position in News by 5.5% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 37,556 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,022,000 after purchasing an additional 1,950 shares during the period. United Services Automobile Association purchased a new stake in News in the first quarter worth approximately $206,000. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in News in the 1st quarter worth approximately $204,000. Focus Partners Wealth raised its stake in News by 44.4% during the 1st quarter. Focus Partners Wealth now owns 16,618 shares of the company’s stock valued at $452,000 after buying an additional 5,106 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sivia Capital Partners LLC purchased a new stake in News during the 2nd quarter valued at $545,000. 66.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.