The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in shares of The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) by 1.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 373,943 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,410 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 0.23% of New York Times worth $19,464,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NYT. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in New York Times by 2.0% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 6,074,514 shares of the company’s stock valued at $338,168,000 after purchasing an additional 118,479 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of New York Times by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,785,844 shares of the company’s stock valued at $266,428,000 after buying an additional 32,905 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in New York Times by 4.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,932,816 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,978,000 after acquiring an additional 154,509 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its stake in New York Times by 1.5% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,353,792 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,544,000 after acquiring an additional 49,853 shares during the period. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its holdings in New York Times by 228.3% in the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 2,536,795 shares of the company’s stock worth $132,040,000 after acquiring an additional 1,764,078 shares during the last quarter. 95.37% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on NYT. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on New York Times from $58.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. StockNews.com raised New York Times from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on New York Times from $56.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on shares of New York Times from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $54.71.

New York Times Stock Performance

Shares of NYT opened at $48.05 on Tuesday. The New York Times Company has a one year low of $41.55 and a one year high of $58.16. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $52.07 and its 200-day moving average is $53.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.00, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.75 and a beta of 1.01.

New York Times (NYSE:NYT) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.06. New York Times had a net margin of 11.36% and a return on equity of 18.51%. Analysts forecast that The New York Times Company will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

New York Times Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.50%. This is an increase from New York Times’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.13. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. New York Times’s dividend payout ratio is 40.45%.

New York Times Profile

The New York Times Company, together with its subsidiaries, creates, collects, and distributes news and information worldwide. The company operates through two segments, The New York Times Group and The Athletic. It offers The New York Times (The Times) through company’s mobile application, website, printed newspaper, and associated content, such as podcast.