Fox Co. (NASDAQ:FOXA) Short Interest Down 6.7% in December

Fox Co. (NASDAQ:FOXA) saw a significant decrease in short interest in December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 23,820,000 shares, a decrease of 6.7% from the December 15th total of 25,540,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,370,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 7.1 days. Currently, 10.9% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on FOX from $42.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on FOX from $36.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays increased their price target on FOX from $36.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Cfra reissued a “sell” rating on shares of FOX in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on shares of FOX from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, FOX presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $48.00.

FOX Price Performance

NASDAQ FOXA traded down $0.32 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $48.00. The stock had a trading volume of 3,970,549 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,980,282. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $47.72 and a 200 day simple moving average of $42.75. The company has a quick ratio of 2.33, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. The company has a market cap of $21.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.75. FOX has a 52-week low of $28.28 and a 52-week high of $50.63.

FOX (NASDAQ:FOXA) last announced its earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.45 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $3.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.38 billion. FOX had a return on equity of 16.49% and a net margin of 13.40%. FOX’s quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.09 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that FOX will post 4.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at FOX

In related news, Chairman Keith Rupert Murdoch sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.05, for a total value of $4,205,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now owns 1,258,862 shares in the company, valued at $52,935,147.10. This represents a 7.36 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO John Nallen sold 182,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.73, for a total transaction of $7,979,894.13. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 249,424 shares in the company, valued at $10,907,311.52. The trade was a 42.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 469,352 shares of company stock worth $20,822,072 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 21.77% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FOXA. Independent Franchise Partners LLP raised its stake in FOX by 3.3% during the second quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 18,495,954 shares of the company’s stock worth $635,706,000 after purchasing an additional 597,450 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of FOX by 44,205.3% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,915,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $335,066,000 after purchasing an additional 7,897,710 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of FOX by 7.7% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,758,734 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,180,000 after buying an additional 268,778 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of FOX by 25.5% in the second quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 2,420,940 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,208,000 after buying an additional 492,467 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its stake in FOX by 228.4% during the 3rd quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,387,107 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,716,000 after buying an additional 964,737 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 52.52% of the company’s stock.

About FOX

Fox Corporation operates as a news, sports, and entertainment company in the United States (U.S.). The company operates through four segments: Cable Network Programming, Television, Credible, and The FOX Studio Lot. The Cable Network Programming segment produces and licenses news and sports content for distribution through traditional cable television systems, direct broadcast satellite operators and telecommunication companies, virtual multi-channel video programming distributors, and other digital platforms primarily in the U.S.