News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven research firms that are covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $37.02.

NWSA has been the topic of several research reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 target price on shares of News in a research report on Friday, February 6th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in News by 16.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,673,000 after purchasing an additional 4,448,929 shares in the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP increased its holdings in shares of News by 4.0% during the 4th quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 29,934,048 shares of the company’s stock valued at $781,877,000 after purchasing an additional 1,137,691 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in shares of News by 39.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,214,562 shares in the last quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP lifted its stake in shares of News by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 14,009,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $430,224,000 after purchasing an additional 1,358,375 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in News by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,458,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,169,000 after buying an additional 88,157 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

News Stock Performance

Shares of NWSA stock opened at $24.26 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $24.45 and a 200 day moving average of $26.09. News has a 1 year low of $22.20 and a 1 year high of $31.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 1.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.95 and a beta of 0.98.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.07. News had a return on equity of 5.94% and a net margin of 13.35%.The business 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 earned $0.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that News will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

The business 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. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. News’s payout ratio is 9.85%.

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.