12,774 Shares in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Acquired by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 12,774 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $314,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NWSA. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of News in the 4th quarter valued at about $84,073,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in News by 1,188.6% in the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,021,165 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,975,000 after purchasing an additional 2,786,718 shares during the last quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. purchased a new position in News in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $42,098,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in News by 35.6% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,262,494 shares of the company’s stock valued at $160,865,000 after purchasing an additional 1,908,096 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in News by 43.9% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 5,251,799 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,351,000 after purchasing an additional 1,603,235 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

News Price Performance

NWSA stock opened at $25.74 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $14.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.35 and a beta of 1.33. News Co. has a twelve month low of $16.35 and a twelve month high of $28.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.50. 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 quarterly 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 the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.14 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that News Co. will post 0.72 EPS for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

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

News Company Profile

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.