News (NASDAQ:NWS) Raised to Strong-Buy at Zacks Research

News (NASDAQ:NWS) was upgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Zacks.com reports.

Separately, Weiss Ratings cut shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, June 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, News has an average rating of “Buy”.

News Trading Up 3.1%

NWS opened at $30.17 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.59. News has a one year low of $25.49 and a one year high of $35.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.01 and a beta of 0.88. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $29.03.

News (NASDAQ:NWS) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.14 by $0.07. News had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 6.12%. The firm had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.12 billion. Analysts predict that News will post 0.96 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. NewEdge Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of News during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,000. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP bought a new stake in News during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Arax Advisory Partners bought a new stake in News during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $47,000. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in News by 69.0% in the fourth quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 1,629 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,000 after acquiring an additional 665 shares during the period. Finally, Smartleaf Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of News by 74.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 2,056 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,000 after acquiring an additional 878 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 14.63% of the company’s stock.

News Company Profile

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS) is a global media and information services company engaged in news and digital real estate, book publishing and other media businesses. The company’s operations include print and digital newsbrands, business and financial information services, consumer platforms for property listings, and a major book publishing arm. Through its subsidiaries and brands, News Corp produces news content, market and financial reporting, online real-estate marketplaces and trade and consumer publishing products.

Key areas of activity include news and information, where the company publishes national and regional newspapers and operates business information services; book publishing through a well-known global publisher; and property-related digital businesses that operate online marketplaces for real estate listings.