American Century Companies Inc. Grows Holdings in News Corporation $NWS

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWS) by 2.9% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 30,766 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 870 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in News were worth $934,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NWS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of News by 5.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,879,273 shares of the company’s stock valued at $208,924,000 after buying an additional 344,036 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in News by 4,373.6% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 348,496 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,475,000 after acquiring an additional 340,706 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in News during the first quarter worth about $8,393,000. Cooper Investors PTY Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of News during the first quarter worth about $7,155,000. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of News by 60.2% in the first quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. now owns 356,975 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,841,000 after purchasing an additional 134,148 shares during the period. 14.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Zacks Research raised shares of News to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 12th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy”.

News Stock Performance

Shares of NWS opened at $32.89 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $18.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.81 and a beta of 1.18. News Corporation has a 52-week low of $26.25 and a 52-week high of $35.58. The company has a quick ratio of 1.72, a current ratio of 1.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $33.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.37.

News (NASDAQ:NWS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.09 billion. News had a net margin of 13.21% and a return on equity of 5.66%. Research analysts predict that News Corporation will post 1.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 10th. This represents a dividend yield of 60.0%. News’s payout ratio is 9.62%.

About News

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.