Fox Co. (NASDAQ:FOXA) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Fox Co. (NASDAQ:FOXA) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eighteen analysts that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $51.19.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on FOXA. StockNews.com cut FOX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of FOX from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 5th. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of FOX from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Loop Capital lifted their target price on shares of FOX from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price target on FOX from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 5th.

FOX Stock Performance

NASDAQ FOXA opened at $55.67 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $25.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.92, a PEG ratio of 1.27 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 2.14, a current ratio of 2.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.57. FOX has a twelve month low of $28.67 and a twelve month high of $58.74. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $52.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $46.77.

FOX (NASDAQ:FOXA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $5.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.78 billion. FOX had a return on equity of 18.50% and a net margin of 14.39%. The company’s revenue was up 19.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.34 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that FOX will post 4.38 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

FOX Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be issued a $0.27 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th. This represents a yield of 1%. FOX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 11.56%.

Insider Buying and Selling at FOX

In other FOX news, Chairman Keith Rupert Murdoch sold 58,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.17, for a total transaction of $3,083,860.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 1,200,862 shares in the company, valued at approximately $63,849,832.54. This trade represents a 4.61 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Adam G. Ciongoli sold 1,278 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.13, for a total value of $69,178.14. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 29,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,618,324.61. This trade represents a 4.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 21.77% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On FOX

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in FOX by 44,205.3% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,915,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $335,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,897,710 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of FOX during the fourth quarter worth about $132,161,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of FOX during the 4th quarter valued at about $67,471,000. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of FOX by 240.2% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,884,927 shares of the company’s stock valued at $91,570,000 after purchasing an additional 1,330,908 shares during the period. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in FOX by 228.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,387,107 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,716,000 after purchasing an additional 964,737 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 52.52% of the company’s stock.

FOX Company Profile

Fox Corporation operates as a news, sports, and entertainment company in the United States (U.S.). The company operates through four segments: Cable Network Programming, Television, Credible, and The FOX Studio Lot. The Cable Network Programming segment produces and licenses news and sports content for distribution through traditional cable television systems, direct broadcast satellite operators and telecommunication companies, virtual multi-channel video programming distributors, and other digital platforms primarily in the U.S.