Amundi Grows Stake in News Corporation $NWS

Amundi raised its stake in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWS) by 16.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 239,051 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 33,283 shares during the period. Amundi’s holdings in News were worth $7,035,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of NWS. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of News by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 58,208 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,771,000 after acquiring an additional 878 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of News by 22.5% in the fourth quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 37,171 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,131,000 after acquiring an additional 6,821 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG grew its stake in shares of News by 58.0% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 362,992 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,046,000 after acquiring an additional 133,224 shares during the last quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of News by 16.3% in the fourth quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 35,317 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,075,000 after acquiring an additional 4,950 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mufg Securities Americas Inc. bought a new position in shares of News during the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. 14.63% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

News Stock Down 2.7%

NWS stock opened at $31.56 on Thursday. News Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $26.25 and a fifty-two week high of $35.58. The business’s 50-day moving average is $33.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $32.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a current ratio of 1.84. The company has a market cap of $17.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.17 and a beta of 1.18.

News (NASDAQ:NWS) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by $0.01. News had a return on equity of 5.66% and a net margin of 13.21%.The company had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.09 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 1.03 earnings per share for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 10th. This represents a yield of 63.0%. News’s dividend payout ratio is currently 9.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Zacks Research raised News to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

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.