News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Shares Sold by Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C.

Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. cut its position in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 0.2% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,060,779 shares of the company’s stock after selling 2,600 shares during the period. Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C.’s holdings in News were worth $29,214,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of NWSA. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of News by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,952,317 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,403,227,000 after purchasing an additional 632,721 shares in the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP increased its position 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 worth $733,039,000 after acquiring an additional 2,812,080 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 8,144,856 shares in the last quarter. Dodge & Cox grew its stake in News by 12.0% during the 4th quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 11,662,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $321,190,000 after purchasing an additional 1,245,278 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in News by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,857,139 shares of the company’s stock worth $270,798,000 after purchasing an additional 234,893 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NWSA. UBS Group raised News from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of News in a report on Friday, January 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com lowered shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of News to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on News from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, News currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.80.

News Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $27.13 on Friday. News Co. has a 12 month low of $22.65 and a 12 month high of $30.69. The company has a market capitalization of $15.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.16 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.65. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $26.92 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.71.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.04. News had a return on equity of 5.31% and a net margin of 4.22%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that News Co. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. News’s payout ratio is currently 27.40%.

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.