First Trust Advisors LP Boosts Stock Position in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA – Get Rating) by 20.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 490,586 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 84,475 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in News were worth $7,413,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Texas Permanent School Fund increased its position in shares of News by 1.2% during the second quarter. Texas Permanent School Fund now owns 51,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $799,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of News by 0.3% during the third quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 240,150 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,629,000 after purchasing an additional 790 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. increased its position in shares of News by 0.6% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 132,676 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,997,000 after purchasing an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of News by 1.5% during the second quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 52,972 shares of the company’s stock worth $825,000 after purchasing an additional 804 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC increased its position in shares of News by 0.4% during the third quarter. Chevy Chase Trust Holdings LLC now owns 235,451 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,557,000 after purchasing an additional 853 shares in the last quarter. 63.84% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, General Counsel David B. Pitofsky sold 23,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.23, for a total value of $409,212.50. Following the transaction, the general counsel now owns 63,956 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,101,961.88. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 13.80% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, Loop Capital upgraded News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $17.00 to $25.00 in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.03.

News Stock Performance

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $15.60 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $18.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.00 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.17 and a current ratio of 1.28. News Co. has a fifty-two week low of $14.87 and a fifty-two week high of $23.07.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by ($0.11). News had a return on equity of 5.13% and a net margin of 2.94%. The company had revenue of $2.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.57 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.44 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that News Co. will post 0.41 earnings per share for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 14th. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.46%.

News Company Profile

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News Corp. is a media and information services company, which engages in the creation and distribution of content and other services. It operates through the following segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other. The Digital Real Estate Services segment refers to the firm’s interest in the REA Group, a company with operations focused on property and property-related advertising and services, as well as financial services.