Metropolis Capital Ltd Raises Position in News Corporation $NWS

Key Points

• Metropolis Capital raised its stake in News Corporation by 13.8% in Q4 to 871,785 shares (about $25.83M), making it the firm's 14th-largest position.
• News beat quarterly expectations with EPS of $0.40 vs. $0.25 consensus and revenue of $2.31B vs. $2.30B, and the stock trades with a market cap of $15.61B and a P/E of 13.85.
• Analysts have upgraded the stock to an average "Strong Buy" (including upgrades from Weiss and Zacks), and the company declared a $0.10 dividend payable April 8 (record March 11).

Metropolis Capital Ltd raised its holdings in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWS - Free Report) by 13.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 871,785 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 105,669 shares during the period. News makes up 0.8% of Metropolis Capital Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 14th largest position. Metropolis Capital Ltd owned about 0.16% of News worth $25,831,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. L1 Capital Pty Ltd bought a new stake in shares of News during the 3rd quarter worth $117,040,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in News by 23.1% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,819,105 shares of the company's stock valued at $304,700,000 after acquiring an additional 1,657,727 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd purchased a new stake in News during the third quarter valued at about $19,456,000. UBS Group AG lifted its stake in News by 100.5% during the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,047,526 shares of the company's stock worth $36,192,000 after purchasing an additional 525,119 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of News during the 2nd quarter valued at about $14,705,000. 14.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

News Price Performance

Shares of News stock opened at $28.11 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 1.81 and a quick ratio of 1.69. News Corporation has a one year low of $25.49 and a one year high of $35.58. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $27.50 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $29.32. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.85 and a beta of 0.90.

News (NASDAQ:NWS - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.15. News had a net margin of 13.35% and a return on equity of 5.94%. The firm had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.30 billion. Analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 1.03 EPS for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 73.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. News's dividend payout ratio is 9.85%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded News from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 10th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of News from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has given a Buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, News presently has an average rating of "Strong Buy".

About News

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.

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