News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Reaches New 12-Month High - Time to Buy?

News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA - Get Free Report)'s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $30.75 and last traded at $30.27, with a volume of 656193 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $29.73.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NWSA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Guggenheim restated a "buy" rating and set a $45.00 target price on shares of News in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of News from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of News from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Buy" and an average price target of $39.20.

News Price Performance

The company's 50 day moving average price is $28.60 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.86. The stock has a market cap of $17.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.00 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 1.60, a current ratio of 1.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $2.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2 billion. News had a net margin of 5.18% and a return on equity of 5.64%. News's revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.13 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On News

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of NWSA. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC raised its stake in News by 103.9% during the first quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 23,344 shares of the company's stock worth $635,000 after buying an additional 11,898 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in News by 1.3% during the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,081,305 shares of the company's stock valued at $83,873,000 after acquiring an additional 39,342 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in News by 11.3% during the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 42,621 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,133,000 after acquiring an additional 4,332 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC bought a new stake in News during the first quarter valued at $875,000. Finally, CX Institutional bought a new stake in News during the first quarter valued at $76,000. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company's stock.

About News

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 through six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other.