News Corporation $NWSA Shares Sold by Asset Management One Co. Ltd.

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. cut its holdings in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 2.3% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 184,775 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,439 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in News were worth $5,492,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of News by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 51,764,497 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,409,030,000 after acquiring an additional 812,180 shares during the period. Independent Franchise Partners LLP grew its position in shares of News by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 27,189,590 shares of the company’s stock valued at $740,101,000 after acquiring an additional 572,331 shares during the period. Dodge & Cox grew its position in shares of News by 18.7% during the 1st quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,846,298 shares of the company’s stock valued at $376,896,000 after acquiring an additional 2,183,613 shares during the period. 59 North Capital Management LP grew its position in shares of News by 24.4% during the 1st quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 11,147,654 shares of the company’s stock valued at $303,439,000 after acquiring an additional 2,185,542 shares during the period. Finally, Metropolis Capital Ltd boosted its holdings in News by 15.1% in the 2nd quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 5,694,353 shares of the company’s stock worth $169,236,000 after buying an additional 747,744 shares during the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NWSA has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on News from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 20th. Zacks Research cut News from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of News in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Macquarie reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $32.70 price objective on shares of News in a report on Wednesday, August 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $38.62.

News Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of News stock opened at $26.68 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $15.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.83 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.84 and a quick ratio of 1.72. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.66 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.49. News Corporation has a 1-year low of $23.38 and a 1-year high of $31.61.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.19. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.09 billion. News had a net margin of 13.21% and a return on equity of 5.66%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.17 EPS. Analysts predict that News Corporation will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a half year 25 dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 70.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 10th. News’s payout ratio is presently 9.62%.

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.