ProShare Advisors LLC Makes New Investment in News Corporation $NWSA

ProShare Advisors LLC purchased a new position in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 70,981 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,034,000.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in News by 2.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,245,597 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,842,000 after purchasing an additional 94,368 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in shares of News by 80.9% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,069,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,441,000 after purchasing 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 position in shares of News by 120.6% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 2,326,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,002,000 after purchasing an additional 1,272,083 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its holdings in News by 174.3% during the 1st quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 1,911,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,649,000 after buying an additional 1,214,648 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Zacks Research downgraded News from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $35.00 target price on shares of News in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Raymond James Financial started coverage on shares of News in a report on Monday, October 19th. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $35.00 target price for the company. Wall Street Zen raised shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $37.80.

News Trading Down 0.3%

Shares of NWSA stock traded down $0.09 on Friday, reaching $26.39. 7,099,598 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,264,769. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.57 and its 200 day simple moving average 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 current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.28 billion, a PE ratio of 23.56 and a beta of 1.01.

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