Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 186,426 Shares of News Corporation $NWSA

Bank of New York Mellon Corp decreased its holdings in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,653,137 shares of the company’s stock after selling 186,426 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp’s holdings in News were worth $69,300,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its stake in News by 1.3% in the third quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 36,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,123,000 after purchasing an additional 481 shares in the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its stake in News by 23.2% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after purchasing an additional 498 shares in the last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. grew its stake in News by 5.9% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,139 shares of the company’s stock worth $311,000 after purchasing an additional 563 shares in the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in News by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 151,100 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,947,000 after purchasing an additional 600 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Patton Fund Management Inc. grew its stake in News by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. now owns 8,753 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,000 after purchasing an additional 634 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup dropped their price objective on News from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Weiss Ratings raised News from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of News in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. Wall Street Zen upgraded News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, News currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.14.

News Stock Up 0.5%

Shares of NWSA stock opened at $27.20 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.44. 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 capitalization of $14.89 billion, a PE ratio of 13.53 and a beta of 0.88. News Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $31.61.

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