Savant Capital LLC Grows Stock Position in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Savant Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 4.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 13,450 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 540 shares during the quarter. Savant Capital LLC’s holdings in News were worth $330,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in News by 7.4% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 154,806 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,105,000 after buying an additional 10,622 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. increased its position in shares of News by 2.3% in the third quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 59,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,202,000 after purchasing an additional 1,323 shares during the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of News by 109.5% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 134,793 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,704,000 after buying an additional 70,453 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in News by 489.6% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 312,732 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,273,000 after acquiring an additional 259,692 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of News by 2.1% during the third quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 60,093 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,205,000 after purchasing an additional 1,229 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

News Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of News stock opened at $24.56 on Tuesday. News Co. has a 52-week low of $16.35 and a 52-week high of $28.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.03 billion, a PE ratio of 61.40 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.36 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $24.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a current ratio of 1.44.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.26 EPS 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 company 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 EPS. News’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that News Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

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. This represents a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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.