News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Given Average Rating of “Buy” by Analysts

Shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) have been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $38.80.

NWSA has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group upgraded News from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of News from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of News to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Guggenheim lifted their price objective on shares of News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com lowered News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 6th.

News Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of NWSA stock opened at $28.06 on Tuesday. News has a 1-year low of $23.38 and a 1-year high of $30.69. The firm has a market cap of $15.92 billion, a PE ratio of 38.44 and a beta of 1.30. The company has a 50-day moving average of $26.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $27.82. 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 (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $2.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2 billion. News had a return on equity of 5.31% and a net margin of 4.22%. News’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that News will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On News

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Barclays PLC increased its stake in News by 124.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,713,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $391,832,000 after purchasing an additional 8,144,856 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of News by 30.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,458,869 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,850,000 after acquiring an additional 338,958 shares during the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of News during the fourth quarter worth approximately $374,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of News by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 435,388 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,594,000 after purchasing an additional 12,345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its holdings in News by 374.6% during the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,160,045 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,488,000 after buying an additional 1,704,944 shares during the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.