Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Acquires 9,924 Shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 32.4% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 40,552 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 9,924 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in News were worth $996,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in News by 3.9% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,447,765 shares of the company’s stock worth $109,282,000 after acquiring an additional 204,637 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of News by 43.9% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,251,799 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,351,000 after purchasing an additional 1,603,235 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of News by 31.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,140,972 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,068,000 after purchasing an additional 984,209 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of News by 24.2% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,462,803 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,342,000 after purchasing an additional 285,383 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of News in the third quarter worth $28,513,000. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

News Stock Performance

NWSA opened at $24.56 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.40 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a fifty day moving average of $25.74 and a 200 day moving average of $23.86. News Co. has a fifty-two week low of $16.35 and a fifty-two week high of $28.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.44.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. News had a net margin of 2.29% and a return on equity of 4.14%. News’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.14 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that News Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a Semi-Annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a yield of 0.8%. News’s payout ratio is 50.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Macquarie raised shares of News from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. TheStreet raised shares of News from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $29.50.

News Company Profile

News Corporation, a media and information services company, creates and distributes authoritative and engaging content, and other products and services for consumers and businesses worldwide. It operates in six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other.