CIBC Asset Management Inc Boosts Stock Position in News Corporation $NWSA

CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 58.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 88,169 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 32,641 shares during the quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc’s holdings in News were worth $2,303,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of News by 16.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $965,673,000 after purchasing an additional 4,448,929 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 in the last quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP grew its holdings in shares of News by 10.7% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of News by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,458,034 shares of the company’s stock valued at $272,169,000 after purchasing an additional 88,157 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of News by 11.7% in the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 9,072,194 shares of the company’s stock valued at $278,607,000 after purchasing an additional 947,687 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have commented on NWSA shares. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of News from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of News from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Zacks Research raised shares of News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 price objective on shares of News in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, News currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.14.

News Price Performance

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $27.26 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a fifty day moving average of $25.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $25.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.56 and a beta of 0.88. News Corporation has a 52 week low of $22.20 and a 52 week high of $31.61.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.17 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that News Corporation will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current 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.