Pallas Capital Advisors LLC Lowers Holdings in News Corporation $NWSA

Pallas Capital Advisors LLC cut its holdings in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 75.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,422 shares of the company’s stock after selling 32,570 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in News were worth $272,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Permanent Capital Management LP purchased a new position in News during the third quarter valued at $812,000. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in News by 39.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $456,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,214,562 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in shares of News by 22.9% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,770,946 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,389,000 after purchasing an additional 330,513 shares during the last quarter. GenTrust LLC bought a new position in shares of News during the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,549,000. Finally, Rakuten Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of News during the third quarter valued at about $4,381,000. 66.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the company. Citigroup decreased their target price on News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research 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. Wall Street Zen cut News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 23rd. Zacks Research upgraded News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 target price on shares of News in a report on Friday, February 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.02.

News Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of NASDAQ:NWSA opened at $24.71 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $13.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.17 and a beta of 0.91. News Corporation has a 12 month low of $22.20 and a 12 month 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 company has a 50-day moving average price of $24.34 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.93.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.30 billion. News had a return on equity of 5.94% and a net margin of 13.35%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.33 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 11th. News’s dividend payout ratio is presently 9.85%.

About News

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.