BNP Paribas Financial Markets Sells 541,529 Shares of News Corporation $NWSA

BNP Paribas Financial Markets trimmed its stake in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 29.0% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 1,325,514 shares of the company’s stock after selling 541,529 shares during the quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets’ holdings in News were worth $34,622,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NWSA. Swedbank AB boosted its stake in News by 77.3% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 192,326 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,024,000 after purchasing an additional 83,821 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in News by 39.5% in the third 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 in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in News by 22.9% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,770,946 shares of the company’s stock worth $54,389,000 after purchasing an additional 330,513 shares in the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its stake in News by 14.2% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 823,989 shares of the company’s stock worth $21,580,000 after purchasing an additional 102,259 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in News in the third quarter worth $8,799,000. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on NWSA shares. Wall Street Zen raised News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Weiss Ratings raised News from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Citigroup reduced their price objective on News from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of News in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. Finally, Zacks Research raised News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, News has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.14.

News Price Performance

News stock opened at $26.05 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.39. The stock has a market cap of $14.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.96 and a beta of 0.88. News Corporation has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $31.61. The company has a quick ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. News had a return on equity of 6.12% and a net margin of 12.92%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.17 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that News Corporation will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current year.

News 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.