News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) Receives $38.62 Average Price Target from Analysts

News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) has earned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the eight brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $38.6167.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on NWSA shares. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of News from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of News in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Macquarie restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $32.70 price target on shares of News in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th.

News Trading Down 2.2%

NWSA opened at $28.77 on Monday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $29.44 and its 200-day moving average is $28.16. News has a 1-year low of $23.38 and a 1-year high of $30.75. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a market cap of $16.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.83 and a beta of 1.18.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.19. News had a net margin of 13.21% and a return on equity of 5.66%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.09 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.17 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that News will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a half year 25 dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 10th. This represents a dividend yield of 70.0%. News’s payout ratio is 9.62%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NWSA. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of News by 488.0% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,124,507 shares of the company’s stock worth $241,054,000 after purchasing an additional 6,742,836 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of News in the 2nd quarter valued at $195,910,000. Asset Value Investors Ltd bought a new stake in shares of News in the 4th quarter valued at $122,391,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of News by 291.2% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 4,941,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $136,088,000 after acquiring an additional 3,678,215 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of News in the 1st quarter valued at $85,213,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

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.