Swiss National Bank Has $33.37 Million Stock Position in News Corporation $NWSA

Key Points

• Swiss National Bank trimmed its News Corporation stake by 4.8% in Q3, selling 54,200 shares and now holds 1,086,475 shares worth about $33.37 million (0.19% of the company).
• Other large investors expanded positions—AQR boosted its stake 488% to 8.12 million shares, Barclays added 4.21 million shares, and Norges Bank opened a new ~$195.9 million position—leaving institutional ownership at 66.97%.
• Analysts are mixed but the consensus is a Moderate Buy with a $37.02 target while NWSA trades near $23.86 after beating Q results ($0.40 vs. $0.33); the company also announced a $0.10 dividend (ex-dividend Mar 11, payable Apr 8).

Swiss National Bank cut its stake in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA - Free Report) by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,086,475 shares of the company's stock after selling 54,200 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned 0.19% of News worth $33,366,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in News by 488.0% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,124,507 shares of the company's stock valued at $241,054,000 after purchasing an additional 6,742,836 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in News during the 2nd quarter worth $195,910,000. Barclays PLC lifted its holdings in shares of News by 39.5% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP boosted its position in shares of News by 7.3% in the second quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 29,170,531 shares of the company's stock valued at $866,948,000 after acquiring an additional 1,980,941 shares during the period. Finally, 59 North Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of News by 13.5% in the second quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 12,650,867 shares of the company's stock valued at $375,984,000 after acquiring an additional 1,503,213 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of News from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Wall Street Zen cut News from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price target on News in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $37.02.

News Price Performance

Shares of NWSA stock traded up $0.28 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $23.86. The company's stock had a trading volume of 502,064 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,860,639. News Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $31.61. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $24.93 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.46. 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 company has a market capitalization of $13.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.75 and a beta of 0.98.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.30 billion. News had a return on equity of 5.94% and a net margin of 13.35%.News's revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.33 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

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

News 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.

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.