News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Receives $29.50 Average PT from Analysts

Shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) have been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the four brokerages that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $29.50.

Several analysts have commented on NWSA shares. Macquarie upgraded News from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of News from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On News

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NWSA. Ieq Capital LLC acquired a new position in News during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $253,000. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in News by 1,732.4% during the 4th quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 96,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,379,000 after purchasing an additional 91,610 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in News by 321.4% during the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,155,073 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,171,000 after buying an additional 880,977 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in News by 34.0% in the 3rd quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 96,548 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,937,000 after buying an additional 24,496 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirabella Financial Services LLP purchased a new position in News in the 3rd quarter valued at about $496,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

News Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NWSA opened at $24.21 on Tuesday. News has a 1-year low of $16.35 and a 1-year high of $28.00. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $25.71 and a 200-day simple moving average of $23.86. The firm has a market cap of $13.83 billion, a PE ratio of 60.25 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio 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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. News had a return on equity of 4.14% and a net margin of 2.29%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.14 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that News will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

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