News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) was downgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on NWSA. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price objective on News in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Guggenheim dropped their price target on News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective 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. Zacks Research lowered shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 4th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, News currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $37.02.

News Stock Up 1.4%

NWSA opened at $24.62 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $25.10 and a 200-day moving average of $26.62. The company has a market capitalization of $13.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.13 and a beta of 0.98. News has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $31.61. 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 announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.30 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.33 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that News will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of News

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of News by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 121,653 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,610,000 after purchasing an additional 4,244 shares in the last quarter. Permanent Capital Management LP bought a new stake in News in the 3rd quarter valued at about $812,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in News by 22.9% during 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. XTX Topco Ltd raised its stake in News by 197.2% during the 2nd quarter. XTX Topco Ltd now owns 83,176 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,472,000 after buying an additional 55,185 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Fund Management S.A. bought a new position in News in the second quarter worth approximately $8,246,000. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About News

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.