News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Given Consensus Rating of “Buy” by Analysts

Shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) have been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the four brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $29.50.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Macquarie upgraded shares of News from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. TheStreet upgraded News from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 19th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in shares of News by 104.8% in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,608 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 823 shares in the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its stake in News by 153.1% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,635 shares of the company’s stock worth $40,000 after purchasing an additional 989 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in News during the 4th quarter worth about $45,000. Financial Management Professionals Inc. acquired a new stake in News in the 4th quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of News by 65.1% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,655 shares of the company’s stock valued at $65,000 after buying an additional 1,047 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

News Trading Up 1.7 %

NWSA stock opened at $24.43 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $13.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.08 and a beta of 1.33. The business’s 50-day moving average is $25.76 and its 200 day moving average is $23.83. News has a 12-month low of $16.35 and a 12-month high of $28.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. News had a net margin of 2.29% and a return on equity of 4.14%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.14 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that News will post 0.72 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a Semi-Annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a dividend yield of 0.8%. News’s dividend payout ratio 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.