News Corporation $NWSA Shares Sold by Vanguard Group Inc.

Key Points

• Vanguard Group Inc. trimmed its stake in News Corporation by 2.8% in Q4, selling 1,422,849 shares and finishing the quarter with 49,862,113 shares (about 8.88%), valued at approximately $1.302 billion.
• News beat expectations for the most recent quarter with EPS of $0.40 versus $0.33 estimated and revenue of $2.36 billion, up 5.5% year‑over‑year.
• Analysts are split (three Buy, three Hold) but the market consensus target is $37.02, significantly above the recent share price near $26.32.

Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA - Free Report) by 2.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 49,862,113 shares of the company's stock after selling 1,422,849 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 8.88% of News worth $1,302,398,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NWSA. Barclays PLC grew its stake in News by 39.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company's stock worth $456,830,000 after buying an additional 4,214,562 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in News by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,770,946 shares of the company's stock worth $54,389,000 after buying an additional 330,513 shares during the last quarter. GenTrust LLC bought a new position in News during the 3rd quarter worth $1,549,000. CIBC Bancorp USA Inc. acquired a new position in News during the 3rd quarter worth $8,799,000. Finally, Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in News during the 3rd quarter worth $4,381,000. 66.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Zacks Research upgraded News from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings upgraded News from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Wall Street Zen lowered News from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price objective on News in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 9th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $37.02.

News Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of News stock opened at $26.32 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $14.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.97 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $24.69 and a 200-day simple moving average of $25.40. News Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $31.61.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.07. News had a return on equity of 5.94% and a net margin of 13.35%.The business had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 11th. News's dividend payout ratio is currently 9.85%.

News Company Profile

News Corporation NASDAQ: NWSA is a global diversified media and information services company headquartered in New York City. It operates through two principal segments: News and Information Services, and Digital Real Estate Services. The company's news and information division oversees a portfolio of leading newspapers, magazines and digital platforms, offering content across print and online channels. Its properties include Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barron's, News UK titles such as The Times and The Sun, as well as News Corp Australia mastheads.

In addition to its journalism assets, News Corp is a significant player in book publishing through HarperCollins, one of the world's largest consumer publishers.

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