News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Shares Sold by Strs Ohio

Strs Ohio cut its stake in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 12.7% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 95,117 shares of the company’s stock after selling 13,871 shares during the quarter. Strs Ohio’s holdings in News were worth $2,335,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of NWSA. Wedmont Private Capital increased its stake in News by 3.9% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 12,873 shares of the company’s stock worth $317,000 after acquiring an additional 486 shares during the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC raised its holdings in News by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 6,008 shares of the company’s stock valued at $121,000 after buying an additional 523 shares during the period. Toroso Investments LLC lifted its position in News by 2.0% in the first quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 28,151 shares of the company’s stock valued at $486,000 after buying an additional 542 shares during the last quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors boosted its stake in News by 4.0% during the second quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 14,183 shares of the company’s stock worth $277,000 after buying an additional 544 shares during the period. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS increased its position in shares of News by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 131,605 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,231,000 after acquiring an additional 596 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

News Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NWSA opened at $24.02 on Friday. News Co. has a 52 week low of $16.35 and a 52 week high of $28.00. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $25.79 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $23.74. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market cap of $13.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 60.05 and a beta of 1.33.

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. The company had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. News had a return on equity of 4.14% and a net margin of 2.29%. News’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.14 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that News Co. will post 0.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a Semi-Annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a dividend yield of 0.8%. News’s payout ratio is 50.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on NWSA shares. Macquarie raised shares of News from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research 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 upgraded News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $29.50.

News 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.