News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the seven analysts that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $37.02.

Several research analysts have weighed in on the company. Guggenheim dropped their target price on News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Wall Street Zen raised News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, February 14th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price target on shares of News in a report on Friday, February 6th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of News by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 52,171,790 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,550,546,000 after purchasing an additional 407,293 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of News by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,673,000 after buying an additional 4,448,929 shares during the period. Independent Franchise Partners LLP boosted its stake in News by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 29,934,048 shares of the company’s stock valued at $781,877,000 after buying an additional 1,137,691 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its position in News by 39.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,830,000 after acquiring an additional 4,214,562 shares during the period. Finally, 59 North Capital Management LP raised its stake in News by 10.7% during the third quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 14,009,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,224,000 after acquiring an additional 1,358,375 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

News Stock Performance

NWSA stock opened at $24.29 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.77. News has a 52 week low of $22.20 and a 52 week high of $31.61. The stock has a market cap of $13.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.97 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 1.81.

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

News Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 11th. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.