News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of News (NASDAQ:NWSA – Get Rating) in a research report released on Thursday. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the stock.

Separately, Loop Capital upgraded News from a hold rating to a buy rating and increased their target price for the company from $17.00 to $25.00 in a report on Wednesday, January 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, News currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $26.03.

News Stock Performance

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $15.91 on Thursday. News has a 1-year low of $14.87 and a 1-year high of $23.07. The company has a market capitalization of $9.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.60 and a beta of 1.31. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $18.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.17.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 9th. The company reported $0.14 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.25 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $2.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.57 billion. News had a net margin of 2.94% and a return on equity of 5.13%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.44 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that News will post 0.41 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 14th. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.46%.

Insider Transactions at News

In other news, General Counsel David B. Pitofsky sold 23,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.23, for a total transaction of $409,212.50. Following the sale, the general counsel now owns 63,956 shares in the company, valued at $1,101,961.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 13.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On News

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of News during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in News by 50.5% in the fourth quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 2,313 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 776 shares during the last quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new position in News in the fourth quarter valued at $50,000. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in News by 289.4% in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,870 shares of the company’s stock valued at $45,000 after acquiring an additional 2,133 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in News by 3,529.0% in the second quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 3,375 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 3,282 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 63.84% of the company’s stock.

About News

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News Corp. is a media and information services company, which engages in the creation and distribution of content and other services. It operates through the following segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other. The Digital Real Estate Services segment refers to the firm’s interest in the REA Group, a company with operations focused on property and property-related advertising and services, as well as financial services.