Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of FOX Put Options (NASDAQ:FOXA)

Fox Corporation (NASDAQ:FOXA) saw some unusual options trading activity on Tuesday. Stock investors bought 3,008 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 306% compared to the average daily volume of 740 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at FOX

In related news, CEO Lachlan K. Murdoch sold 637,752 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.20, for a total transaction of $37,117,166.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 152 shares in the company, valued at $8,846.40. This represents a 99.98% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO John Nallen sold 216,806 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.68, for a total value of $12,505,370.08. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 362,206 shares in the company, valued at $20,892,042.08. This trade represents a 37.44% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 1,586,871 shares of company stock valued at $91,893,926 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 19.68% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of FOX

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FOXA. Winnow Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of FOX during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,238,000. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its position in FOX by 23.0% during the third quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 150,522 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,492,000 after purchasing an additional 28,118 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in FOX by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,924,975 shares of the company’s stock worth $121,389,000 after buying an additional 16,757 shares during the period. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH boosted its holdings in shares of FOX by 9.3% in the third quarter. Fort Washington Investment Advisors Inc. OH now owns 662,247 shares of the company’s stock worth $41,761,000 after acquiring an additional 56,234 shares during the period. Finally, Andra AP fonden boosted its stake in FOX by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 944,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $59,560,000 after purchasing an additional 23,700 shares during the period. 52.52% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group set a $64.00 price objective on FOX in a research report on Tuesday, February 24th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of FOX from $77.00 to $78.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Bank of America downgraded FOX from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $45.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of FOX in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Evercore upped their price objective on shares of FOX from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 5th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, FOX presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $71.80.

FOX Trading Up 2.9%

Shares of FOXA stock traded up $1.63 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $58.91. 639,264 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,036,021. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $62.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $64.40. The firm has a market cap of $25.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.12, a P/E/G ratio of 7.12 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 2.44 and a current ratio of 2.78. FOX has a fifty-two week low of $46.42 and a fifty-two week high of $76.39.

FOX (NASDAQ:FOXA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.35. The company had revenue of $5.18 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.02 billion. FOX had a net margin of 11.41% and a return on equity of 18.14%. FOX’s quarterly revenue was up 2.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.96 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that FOX will post 4.38 EPS for the current year.

FOX Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 4th. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. FOX’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.46%.

About FOX

Fox Corporation (NASDAQ: FOXA) is a U.S.-based media company focused on television broadcasting, cable news and sports programming, and digital distribution. The company was formed in 2019 as the successor to certain assets of 21st Century Fox after a transaction that transferred many film and television studio assets to The Walt Disney Company. Fox Corp’s operations center on the Fox Broadcasting network, a portfolio of local television stations, national news and business cable networks, and sports media properties.

Fox produces, acquires and distributes a range of live and recorded programming, including news, opinion and commentary, national and local sports telecasts, and general entertainment.