News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Rating Lowered to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of News (NASDAQ:NWSA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Sunday morning.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. Guggenheim boosted their price target on News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of News to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Loop Capital reduced their price target on shares of News from $44.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on shares of News in a research report on Friday, January 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $39.25.

News Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NWSA opened at $28.52 on Friday. News has a 12-month low of $22.65 and a 12-month high of $30.03. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $28.19 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $27.56. The firm has a market cap of $16.22 billion, a PE ratio of 46.00 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. News had a return on equity of 4.76% and a net margin of 3.49%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.16 earnings per share. Equities research analysts predict that News will post 0.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On News

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NWSA. Barclays PLC boosted its position 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 buying an additional 8,144,856 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of News by 374.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,160,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,488,000 after acquiring an additional 1,704,944 shares during the last quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in News during the 3rd quarter worth $44,585,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in News by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,799,596 shares of the company’s stock worth $689,397,000 after purchasing an additional 1,476,224 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its position in News by 1,815.4% in the third quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,413,158 shares of the company’s stock valued at $37,632,000 after purchasing an additional 1,339,379 shares during the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is owned by 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.