News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Stock Rating Upgraded by Wall Street Zen

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) was upgraded by equities researchers at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Saturday.

Other analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 target price on News in a research note on Friday, February 6th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Zacks Research raised shares of News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 9th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, News presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.02.

News Stock Performance

NWSA stock opened at $24.40 on Friday. News has a 1-year low of $22.20 and a 1-year high of $31.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The firm has a market cap of $13.55 billion, a PE ratio of 12.02 and a beta of 0.91. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $24.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.82.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.07. The company 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%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that News will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On News

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. CYBER HORNET ETFs LLC acquired a new position in shares of News during the 2nd quarter worth about $30,000. Caitong International Asset Management Co. Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of News in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new stake in News during the third quarter worth about $35,000. Advisory Services Network LLC acquired a new position in News during the third quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Finally, Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. boosted its position in News by 154.5% during the third quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. now owns 1,285 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 780 shares during the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

News Company 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.