Allstate Corp Boosts Stake in News Corporation $NWSA

Allstate Corp raised its holdings in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 304.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 32,875 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 24,749 shares during the period. Allstate Corp’s holdings in News were worth $859,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC raised its position in News by 39.5% in the third 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 during the period. Swedbank AB raised its holdings in shares of News by 77.3% in the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 192,326 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,024,000 after buying an additional 83,821 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in shares of News by 22.9% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,770,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,389,000 after buying an additional 330,513 shares during the period. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of News in the 3rd quarter valued at $8,799,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of News by 14.2% in the 4th quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 823,989 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,580,000 after buying an additional 102,259 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on NWSA. Weiss Ratings upgraded News from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday. Wall Street Zen upgraded News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Zacks Research upgraded News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Citigroup cut their price objective on News from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of News in a report on Sunday, May 10th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, News currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.14.

News Trading Down 1.6%

NWSA opened at $26.10 on Friday. 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 $14.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.99 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.59. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $25.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.41.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.05. News had a return on equity of 6.12% and a net margin of 12.92%.The firm had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.17 EPS. News’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that News Corporation will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.