ProShare Advisors LLC Makes New $2.03 Million Investment in News Corporation $NWSA

ProShare Advisors LLC bought a new position in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm bought 70,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,034,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in News by 2.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,245,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,842,000 after buying an additional 94,368 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in shares of News by 80.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,069,041 shares of the company’s stock valued at $101,441,000 after acquiring an additional 1,819,652 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. bought a new position in shares of News during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $79,840,000. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in News by 120.6% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 2,326,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,272,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its holdings in News by 174.3% in the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 1,911,329 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,649,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214,648 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on NWSA shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of News from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 21st. Zacks Research downgraded shares of News from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Raymond James Financial initiated coverage on shares of News in a research report on Monday, October 19th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $35.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Monday, October 12th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, News has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.80.

News Price Performance

Shares of NWSA stock traded down $0.09 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $26.39. The company had a trading volume of 7,099,598 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,264,769. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.62 and a quick ratio of 1.51. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $29.57 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.96. News Corporation has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $31.66. The company has a market capitalization of $14.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.56 and a beta of 1.01.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 4th. The company reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.26 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.27 billion. News had a net margin of 6.35% and a return on equity of 7.09%. News’s quarterly revenue was up 6.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.22 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 1.34 earnings per share for the current year.

News Company Profile

News Corp is a global media and information-services company whose Class A common stock trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol NWSA. The company operates a portfolio of businesses spanning digital and print publishing, subscription products, professional information, real estate services and book publishing.

Its principal businesses include Dow Jones, which provides financial news, data, research and professional information through publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s; News Corp Australia and News UK, which operate newspapers and digital news platforms; and HarperCollins Publishers, which publishes fiction, nonfiction, educational and religious titles.