News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Raised to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued on Sunday.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on NWSA. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 target price on News in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings downgraded News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Zacks Research raised News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, News presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.02.

News Stock Up 2.1%

NASDAQ:NWSA opened at $24.20 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. News has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $31.61. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $24.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.92 and a beta of 0.98.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 EPS 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 business had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that News will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of News

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new position in shares of News during the second quarter worth about $30,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd bought a new stake in News in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in News in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Advisory Services Network LLC acquired a new position in News during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $35,000. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. grew its stake in shares of News by 154.5% during the 3rd quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,285 shares of the company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 780 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

News Company Profile

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.