Principal Financial Group Inc. Purchases 522 Shares of The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT – Get Rating) by 0.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 645,464 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 522 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.39% of New York Times worth $20,952,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NYT. Stockbridge Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of New York Times by 61.5% during the 1st quarter. Stockbridge Partners LLC now owns 6,490,990 shares of the company’s stock worth $297,547,000 after acquiring an additional 2,470,866 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in New York Times by 31.9% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,741,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $263,201,000 after purchasing an additional 1,389,189 shares during the last quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in New York Times by 13.8% in the 3rd quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 7,828,073 shares of the company’s stock valued at $225,057,000 after purchasing an additional 947,269 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in New York Times by 34.1% in the 2nd quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,084,874 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,168,000 after purchasing an additional 529,582 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in New York Times by 25.4% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,187,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $100,269,000 after purchasing an additional 443,684 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 99.15% of the company’s stock.

New York Times Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE NYT opened at $36.03 on Monday. The New York Times Company has a 52-week low of $27.58 and a 52-week high of $42.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $38.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.51. The stock has a market cap of $5.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.33 and a beta of 0.99.

New York Times (NYSE:NYT – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 10th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.03. New York Times had a net margin of 8.21% and a return on equity of 13.49%. The company had revenue of $560.74 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $564.37 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. Analysts predict that The New York Times Company will post 1.29 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

New York Times announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 8th that permits the company to buyback $250.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to repurchase up to 3.8% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on NYT. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of New York Times from $37.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of New York Times from $38.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 15th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of New York Times from $36.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Friday, May 12th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of New York Times from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 11th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.58.

About New York Times

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The New York Times Co is a media organization, which engages in creating, collecting, and distributing news and information. It offers news products and other interest-specific products, and related content and services. It offers newspapers, print, and digital products and investments. The firm also manages The New York Times, NYTimes.com, and mobile applications.