News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSAGet Free Report) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the seven ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $37.14.

NWSA has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Zacks Research upgraded shares of News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of News from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of News from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 price objective on shares of News in a research note on Sunday, May 10th.

Check Out Our Latest Analysis on NWSA

News Trading Up 0.5%

News stock opened at $27.20 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $25.95 and a 200-day moving average of $25.44. News has a one year low of $22.20 and a one year high of $31.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.59. The company has a market cap of $14.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.53 and a beta of 0.88.

News (NASDAQ:NWSAGet Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.21 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.05. News had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 6.12%. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.11 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.17 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that News will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On News

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NWSA. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of News in the 4th quarter valued at about $188,788,000. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of News by 488.0% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,124,507 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,054,000 after purchasing an additional 6,742,836 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can raised its holdings in shares of News by 2,348.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,664,644 shares of the company’s stock valued at $147,961,000 after purchasing an additional 5,433,332 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of News by 16.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $965,673,000 after purchasing an additional 4,448,929 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC raised its holdings in shares of News by 39.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,214,562 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

News Company Profile

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News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA) is a global diversified media and information services company headquartered in New York City. It operates through two principal segments: News and Information Services, and Digital Real Estate Services. The company’s news and information division oversees a portfolio of leading newspapers, magazines and digital platforms, offering content across print and online channels. Its properties include Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, News UK titles such as The Times and The Sun, as well as News Corp Australia mastheads.

In addition to its journalism assets, News Corp is a significant player in book publishing through HarperCollins, one of the world’s largest consumer publishers.

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Analyst Recommendations for News (NASDAQ:NWSA)

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