News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at StockNews.com

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of News (NASDAQ:NWSA – Get Rating) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday. The firm set a “hold” rating on the stock.

Separately, Loop Capital upgraded News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $17.00 to $25.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 25th.

News Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NWSA opened at $18.72 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.26, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. News has a 12 month low of $14.87 and a 12 month high of $21.69. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $16.99 and a 200-day moving average of $17.96. The company has a market capitalization of $10.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 39.83 and a beta of 1.31.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA – Get Rating) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 11th. The company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.03. News had a return on equity of 4.71% and a net margin of 2.64%. The company had revenue of $2.45 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.16 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that News will post 0.39 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, General Counsel David B. Pitofsky sold 23,750 shares of News stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.23, for a total transaction of $409,212.50. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 63,956 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,101,961.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 13.80% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of News

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in News in the 4th quarter valued at $84,073,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in News by 4.3% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 71,894,815 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,308,486,000 after acquiring an additional 2,984,601 shares in the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP raised its holdings in News by 10.3% in the 1st quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 29,764,842 shares of the company’s stock valued at $514,039,000 after acquiring an additional 2,791,241 shares in the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in News by 1,188.6% in the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,021,165 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,975,000 after acquiring an additional 2,786,718 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sessa Capital IM L.P. acquired a new position in News in the 4th quarter valued at $42,098,000. 63.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

News Company Profile

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News Corp. is a media and information services company, which engages in the creation and distribution of content and other services. It operates through the following segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other. The Digital Real Estate Services segment refers to the firm’s interest in the REA Group, a company with operations focused on property and property-related advertising and services, as well as financial services.