SG Americas Securities LLC Has $16.16 Million Stock Position in News Corporation $NWSA

SG Americas Securities LLC grew its position in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 291.6% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 618,724 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 460,733 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC’s holdings in News were worth $16,161,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of NWSA. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of News by 16.5% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $965,673,000 after purchasing an additional 4,448,929 shares in the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP increased its holdings in News by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 29,170,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $866,948,000 after buying an additional 1,980,941 shares during the period. Barclays PLC increased its holdings in News by 39.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,830,000 after buying an additional 4,214,562 shares during the period. 59 North Capital Management LP raised its stake in shares of News by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 14,009,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $430,224,000 after buying an additional 1,358,375 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of News by 11.7% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 9,072,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $278,607,000 after acquiring an additional 947,687 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

News Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of News stock opened at $24.24 on Friday. News Corporation has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $31.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.94 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $24.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.05. The company has a quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. News had a net margin of 13.35% and a return on equity of 5.94%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. News’s payout ratio is presently 9.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on NWSA shares. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 target price on shares of News in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. Citigroup decreased their price objective on News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 9th. Weiss Ratings cut News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.02.

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.