Retirement Systems of Alabama Sells 2,258 Shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Retirement Systems of Alabama lowered its stake in shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 83,875 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,258 shares during the quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama’s holdings in News were worth $2,059,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of NWSA. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its position in News by 109.5% during the third quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 134,793 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,704,000 after acquiring an additional 70,453 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in News by 489.6% during the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 312,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,273,000 after buying an additional 259,692 shares in the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in News by 2.1% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 60,093 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,205,000 after buying an additional 1,229 shares in the last quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC boosted its stake in News by 5.1% during the third quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 33,854 shares of the company’s stock worth $679,000 after buying an additional 1,635 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in News by 8.2% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 793,251 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,913,000 after buying an additional 60,100 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

News Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ NWSA opened at $24.14 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $13.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.35 and a beta of 1.35. News Co. has a 12-month low of $16.35 and a 12-month high of $28.00. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $24.07.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.11. The firm had revenue of $2.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.45 billion. News had a return on equity of 4.14% and a net margin of 2.29%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 1.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.09 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that News Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.