Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Reduces Stake in News Corporation $NWSA

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership reduced its position in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 4.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,706,757 shares of the company’s stock after selling 88,828 shares during the quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned about 0.30% of News worth $52,415,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its position in News by 3.6% in the 2nd quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 121,653 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,610,000 after buying an additional 4,244 shares during the last quarter. Permanent Capital Management LP bought a new stake in News during the 3rd quarter valued at $812,000. XTX Topco Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of News by 197.2% during the second quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 83,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,472,000 after purchasing an additional 55,185 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in News by 22.9% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,770,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,389,000 after buying an additional 330,513 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Fund Management S.A. bought a new stake in News in the second quarter valued at $8,246,000. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have weighed in on the company. Guggenheim cut their price objective on News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Wall Street Zen raised News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 14th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, News has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.02.

News Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NWSA opened at $24.29 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 1.69. News Corporation has a 1 year low of $22.20 and a 1 year high of $31.61. The company has a market cap of $13.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.97 and a beta of 0.99. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.32 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $26.80.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.07. News had a return on equity of 5.94% and a net margin of 13.35%.The business had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. News’s payout ratio is currently 9.85%.

News Company Profile

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA) is a global diversified media and information services company headquartered in New York City. It operates through two principal segments: News and Information Services, and Digital Real Estate Services. The company’s news and information division oversees a portfolio of leading newspapers, magazines and digital platforms, offering content across print and online channels. Its properties include Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, News UK titles such as The Times and The Sun, as well as News Corp Australia mastheads.

In addition to its journalism assets, News Corp is a significant player in book publishing through HarperCollins, one of the world’s largest consumer publishers.