SG Americas Securities LLC Buys New Position in News Corporation $NWSA

SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm bought 157,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,852,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in NWSA. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of News by 0.8% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,171,790 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,550,546,000 after acquiring an additional 407,293 shares during the period. Independent Franchise Partners LLP boosted its stake in News by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 29,170,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $866,948,000 after purchasing an additional 1,980,941 shares in the last quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of News by 13.5% during the 2nd quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 12,650,867 shares of the company’s stock valued at $375,984,000 after purchasing an additional 1,503,213 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of News by 2.1% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,154,121 shares of the company’s stock worth $300,578,000 after buying an additional 208,692 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of News by 488.0% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,124,507 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,054,000 after buying an additional 6,742,836 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NWSA has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of News in a report on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Guggenheim dropped their target price 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. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, January 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.68.

News Stock Performance

News stock opened at $26.47 on Friday. News Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $23.38 and a fifty-two week high of $31.61. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.98 and its 200-day simple moving average is $27.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.76 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The company has a market cap of $14.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.79 and a beta of 0.97.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.22 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.04. News had a net margin of 13.80% and a return on equity of 5.68%. The firm had revenue of $2.14 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.21 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 16.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that News Corporation will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

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.