Citigroup Issues Pessimistic Forecast for News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Stock Price

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) had its price target lowered by analysts at Citigroup from $40.00 to $39.00 in a report released on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the stock. Citigroup’s price target indicates a potential upside of 65.39% from the company’s current price.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on NWSA. Guggenheim dropped their price objective on News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 target price on News in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $37.02.

News Trading Up 3.7%

Shares of NASDAQ NWSA opened at $23.58 on Monday. News has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $31.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 1.81. The company has a market cap of $13.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.62 and a beta of 0.99. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $26.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.30.

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

Institutional Trading of News

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. purchased a new position in shares of News during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new position in News during the third quarter worth $31,000. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC purchased a new position in News during the second quarter valued at $30,000. Root Financial Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of News in the third quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC acquired a new stake in shares of News in the third quarter valued at about $35,000. 66.97% of the stock is currently 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.