Credit Industriel ET Commercial Sells 286,660 Shares of News Corporation $NWSA

Credit Industriel ET Commercial lessened its holdings in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 66.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 146,001 shares of the company’s stock after selling 286,660 shares during the period. Credit Industriel ET Commercial’s holdings in News were worth $4,484,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NWSA. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of News during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in shares of News by 3.6% during the second quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 121,653 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,610,000 after buying an additional 4,244 shares during the last quarter. Permanent Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of News in the third quarter worth $812,000. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its position in shares of News by 197.2% during the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 83,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,472,000 after acquiring an additional 55,185 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Fund Management S.A. bought a new stake in News in the 2nd quarter valued at $8,246,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NWSA has been the subject of several research reports. Zacks Research downgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Wall Street Zen raised News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 9th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.02.

News Price Performance

News stock opened at $22.72 on Monday. News Corporation has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $31.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $25.83 and a 200-day moving average price of $27.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.62 billion, a PE ratio of 11.19 and a beta of 0.99.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share 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 company had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 9.85%.

News 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.