News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Cut to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded News Corp from “strong buy” to “buy,” although analyst sentiment remains positive overall with a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $37.80.
• News reported quarterly EPS of $0.35, exceeding the $0.21 estimate, while revenue reached $2.34 billion and increased 10.8% year over year.
• Shares opened at $30.74, near their 52-week high of $31.66, and institutional investors and hedge funds own approximately 66.97% of the company.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA - Get Free Report) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report issued on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded News from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on News from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Zacks Research cut News from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. Raymond James Financial began coverage on shares of News in a research report on Monday. They set an "outperform" rating and a $35.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an "overweight" rating and issued a $35.00 price objective on shares of News in a research note on Thursday, August 6th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $37.80.

News Stock Performance

Shares of News stock opened at $30.74 on Friday. 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 business has a 50-day moving average price of $29.78 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $27.72. News has a 1-year low of $22.20 and a 1-year high of $31.66. The company has a market cap of $16.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.84 and a beta of 0.97.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.14. News had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 6.35%. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.25 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.19 EPS. The business's quarterly revenue was up 10.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that News will post 1.30 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of News

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Signaturefd LLC boosted its holdings in News by 26.4% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 23,351 shares of the company's stock worth $669,000 after acquiring an additional 4,870 shares during the last quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its stake in shares of News by 214.6% in the 3rd quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 49,019 shares of the company's stock worth $1,408,000 after acquiring an additional 33,438 shares in the last quarter. Sowell Financial Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of News in the third quarter valued at about $217,000. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of News by 119.3% in the third quarter. Fifth Third Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 42,656 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,222,000 after purchasing an additional 23,209 shares during the last quarter. Finally, MBL Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of News during the third quarter valued at about $807,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company's stock.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.