Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Makes New Investment in News Corporation $NWSA

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC purchased a new stake in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 470,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,446,000.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Neo Ivy Capital Management purchased a new stake in News during the 3rd quarter valued at about $89,000. Barclays PLC increased its stake in News by 39.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $456,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,214,562 shares during the period. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC purchased a new position in News in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $351,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in News by 1.1% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,744,191 shares of the company’s stock valued at $145,704,000 after purchasing an additional 49,568 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of News by 1.3% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 255,133 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,835,000 after purchasing an additional 3,379 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently commented on NWSA shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Guggenheim decreased their price objective on shares of News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 target price on shares of News in a report on Friday, February 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, News presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.02.

News Stock Performance

Shares of NWSA opened at $24.62 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market cap of $13.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.13 and a beta of 0.98. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $25.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.57. News Corporation has a 52 week low of $22.20 and a 52 week high of $31.61.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.07. News had a return on equity of 5.94% and a net margin of 13.35%.The company had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.33 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. News’s payout ratio is currently 9.85%.

About News

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.