Fifth Third Bancorp Purchases 1,152 Shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 7.7% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,150 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,152 shares during the quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp’s holdings in News were worth $440,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in News by 2,392.9% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,047 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 1,005 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new position in News in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new position in News in the 4th quarter valued at about $36,000. Sentry Investment Management LLC bought a new position in News in the 1st quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in News by 49.7% in the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,989 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 660 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

News Stock Performance

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $27.76 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.68, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $15.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.28 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $27.45 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.74. News Corporation has a 1 year low of $23.38 and a 1 year high of $30.69.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.02). The firm had revenue of $2.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2 billion. News had a return on equity of 5.64% and a net margin of 5.18%. The business’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.13 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NWSA. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of News from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of News in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.20.

News 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 through six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other.