Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Lowers Stake in News Corporation $NWSA

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership lowered its stake in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 4.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,706,757 shares of the company’s stock after selling 88,828 shares during the quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership’s holdings in News were worth $52,415,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of NWSA. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new stake in shares of News in the 2nd quarter worth $30,000. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new stake in News in the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Rothschild Investment LLC increased its stake in shares of News by 120.0% in the third quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 1,749 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 954 shares during the period. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its position in News by 87.9% during the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,396 shares of the company’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 1,121 shares during the period. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in News by 160.1% during the second quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,361 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,000 after acquiring an additional 2,069 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

News Trading Down 0.1%

NWSA opened at $24.29 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $25.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 1.69. News Corporation has a 12 month low of $22.20 and a 12 month high of $31.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.97 and a beta of 0.99.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (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 company had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. News’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on NWSA. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Weiss Ratings downgraded News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price target on shares of News in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price objective on News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.02.

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.