News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Upgraded at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of News (NASDAQ:NWSA) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on NWSA. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price target on News in a report on Friday, February 6th. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 13th. Weiss Ratings lowered News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.02.

News Stock Performance

Shares of NWSA opened at $24.62 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $25.10 and a 200-day moving average of $26.60. The company has a market cap of $13.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.13 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 has a 1 year low of $22.20 and a 1 year high of $31.61.

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

News Announces Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank bought a new stake in News in the fourth quarter worth about $188,788,000. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of News by 488.0% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,124,507 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,054,000 after purchasing an additional 6,742,836 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can grew its stake in shares of News by 2,348.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,664,644 shares of the company’s stock worth $147,961,000 after purchasing an additional 5,433,332 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of News by 16.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,673,000 after purchasing an additional 4,448,929 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC lifted its stake in News by 39.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,214,562 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

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.