Analysts Set News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Target Price at $39.25

Shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Buy” from the six research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $39.25.

NWSA has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup assumed coverage on News in a research note on Friday, January 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price objective for the company. Loop Capital decreased their price target on shares of News from $44.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 23rd. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of News to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com raised shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Guggenheim increased their price objective on News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Larson Financial Group LLC raised its stake in News by 2,392.9% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 1,047 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 1,005 shares during the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. purchased a new position in News during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. purchased a new position in News during the 4th quarter worth approximately $36,000. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in News during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $39,000. Finally, R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of News during the fourth quarter worth $49,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

News Price Performance

Shares of NWSA stock opened at $28.53 on Thursday. News has a twelve month low of $22.65 and a twelve month high of $30.69. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.08 and a beta of 1.35. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $28.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.77. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.04. News had a return on equity of 5.31% and a net margin of 4.22%. On average, analysts predict that News will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.40%. News’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.40%.

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.