News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Position Boosted by Blue Trust Inc.

Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 65.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 2,655 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,047 shares during the quarter. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in News were worth $65,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in News by 104.8% during the 3rd quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,608 shares of the company’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 823 shares in the last quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP purchased a new position in News during the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. Financial Management Professionals Inc. bought a new stake in shares of News in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of News by 50.5% in the 4th quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 776 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new stake in shares of News in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $53,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NWSA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Macquarie raised News from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com raised News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 19th. Finally, TheStreet raised News from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $29.50.

News Stock Down 0.8 %

NWSA opened at $25.55 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $25.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.36. News Co. has a twelve month low of $16.35 and a twelve month high of $28.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.44. The firm has a market cap of $14.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 63.88 and a beta of 1.33.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.06. News had a return on equity of 4.14% and a net margin of 2.29%. The firm had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.14 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that News Co. will post 0.72 EPS for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a Semi-Annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a dividend yield of 0.8%. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.00%.

About News

News Corporation, a media and information services company, creates and distributes authoritative and engaging content, and other products and services for consumers and businesses worldwide. It operates in six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other.