News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” from Brokerages

News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Buy” from the six brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $39.25.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Citigroup assumed coverage on News in a research report on Friday, January 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price objective on the stock. Guggenheim increased their price objective on shares of News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of News to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of News from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th.

News Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NWSA opened at $30.49 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.65. News has a 1 year low of $22.65 and a 1 year high of $30.69. The company has a market cap of $17.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.77 and a beta of 1.35. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $28.23 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.73.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.04. News had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 5.31%. Sell-side analysts expect that News will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. News’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.40%.

Institutional Trading of News

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of News by 124.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,713,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $391,832,000 after purchasing an additional 8,144,856 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of News during the fourth quarter worth approximately $172,357,000. Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of News by 291.2% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 4,941,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $136,088,000 after acquiring an additional 3,678,215 shares during the period. Independent Franchise Partners LLP raised its stake in shares of News by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 26,617,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $733,039,000 after acquiring an additional 2,812,080 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 59 North Capital Management LP grew its stake in News by 40.2% in the fourth quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 8,962,112 shares of the company’s stock worth $246,817,000 after purchasing an additional 2,569,343 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

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 through six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other.