Legal & General Group Plc Decreases Stock Holdings in News Corporation $NWSA

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its stake in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 13.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 1,656,532 shares of the company’s stock after selling 248,954 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.30% of News worth $43,269,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NWSA. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its stake in News by 488.0% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,124,507 shares of the company’s stock worth $241,054,000 after acquiring an additional 6,742,836 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in News by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,673,000 after acquiring an additional 4,448,929 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its stake in News by 39.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $456,830,000 after acquiring an additional 4,214,562 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in News by 46.6% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,706,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $236,662,000 after acquiring an additional 2,449,552 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 59 North Capital Management LP raised its stake in News by 10.7% during the 3rd quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 14,009,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,224,000 after acquiring an additional 1,358,375 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

News Trading Down 1.6%

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $26.10 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a current ratio of 1.70. The firm has a market cap of $14.29 billion, a PE ratio of 12.99 and a beta of 0.89. News Corporation has a one year low of $22.20 and a one year high of $31.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $25.57 and its two-hundred day moving average is $25.41.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

About News

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.