FOX (NASDAQ:FOXA) Downgraded by Bank of America to “Underperform”

Bank of America downgraded shares of FOX (NASDAQ:FOXA) from a buy rating to an underperform rating in a research note published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat reports. Bank of America currently has $45.00 target price on the stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on FOXA. Citigroup lifted their price objective on FOX from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Zacks Research cut FOX from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Argus upgraded FOX to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 19th. Guggenheim increased their price target on shares of FOX from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 22nd. Finally, Evercore boosted their price target on shares of FOX from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.80.

FOX Stock Performance

FOX stock opened at $54.12 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 2.78, a quick ratio of 2.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company has a market cap of $23.02 billion, a PE ratio of 13.01, a PEG ratio of 7.31 and a beta of 0.51. The company’s 50-day moving average is $68.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $64.51. FOX has a 1 year low of $46.42 and a 1 year high of $76.39.

FOX (NASDAQ:FOXA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.82 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.35. FOX had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 18.14%. The business had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.96 earnings per share. FOX’s revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that FOX will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current year.

FOX Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a yield of 83.0%. FOX’s dividend payout ratio is presently 13.46%.

Insider Activity

In other FOX news, insider Adam G. Ciongoli sold 29,897 shares of FOX stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.55, for a total value of $2,079,336.35. Following the sale, the insider owned 35,978 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,502,269.90. This trade represents a 45.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 19.68% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of FOX

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FOXA. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of FOX by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 6,534,627 shares of the company’s stock valued at $476,248,000 after acquiring an additional 29,923 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its stake in shares of FOX by 0.9% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,924,975 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,389,000 after buying an additional 16,757 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of FOX by 72.0% during the 2nd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,821,284 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,948,000 after purchasing an additional 762,645 shares during the last quarter. Andra AP fonden raised its holdings in shares of FOX by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 944,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,560,000 after purchasing an additional 23,700 shares during the period. Finally, PFA Pension Forsikringsaktieselskab acquired a new stake in FOX in the 4th quarter valued at about $67,467,000. 52.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About FOX

Fox Corporation (NASDAQ: FOXA) is a U.S.-based media company focused on television broadcasting, cable news and sports programming, and digital distribution. The company was formed in 2019 as the successor to certain assets of 21st Century Fox after a transaction that transferred many film and television studio assets to The Walt Disney Company. Fox Corp’s operations center on the Fox Broadcasting network, a portfolio of local television stations, national news and business cable networks, and sports media properties.

Fox produces, acquires and distributes a range of live and recorded programming, including news, opinion and commentary, national and local sports telecasts, and general entertainment.