News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Given Average Rating of “Buy” by Analysts

News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Buy” from the four ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $29.50.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. TheStreet raised News from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Macquarie raised News from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 19th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On News

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of News during the fourth quarter worth $139,956,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of News by 1,188.6% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 3,021,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,975,000 after buying an additional 2,786,718 shares in the last quarter. Sessa Capital IM L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of News during the fourth quarter worth $42,098,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of News by 35.6% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,262,494 shares of the company’s stock worth $160,865,000 after buying an additional 1,908,096 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Junto Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of News during the fourth quarter worth $43,928,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

News Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ NWSA opened at $25.55 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.84 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.36. The company has a market cap of $14.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 63.88 and a beta of 1.33. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. News has a 12-month low of $16.35 and a 12-month high of $28.00.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.06. News had a net margin of 2.29% and a return on equity of 4.14%. The business had revenue of $2.59 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.56 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.14 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that News will post 0.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a Semi-Annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 12th. News’s dividend payout ratio is 50.00%.

News Company Profile

News Corporation, a media and information services company, creates and distributes authoritative and engaging content, and other products and services for consumers and businesses worldwide. It operates in six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other.