Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Acquires New Position in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. acquired a new stake in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 5,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $154,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in News by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,952,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,403,227,000 after buying an additional 632,721 shares during the period. Independent Franchise Partners LLP lifted its holdings in News by 11.8% in the fourth quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 26,617,259 shares of the company’s stock valued at $733,039,000 after buying an additional 2,812,080 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in 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 period. Dodge & Cox raised its holdings in News by 12.0% in the fourth 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 during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in News by 2.4% in the fourth 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. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on NWSA. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. UBS Group upgraded shares of News from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Morgan Stanley cut 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. StockNews.com upgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of News to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.80.

News Trading Up 0.6%

NWSA opened at $28.32 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.80 and a beta of 1.30. News Co. has a 12 month low of $23.38 and a 12 month high of $30.69. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.88. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $2.01 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2 billion. News had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 5.31%. The company’s revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.13 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that News Co. will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Profile

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.