Metropolis Capital Ltd Grows Stock Holdings in News Corporation $NWSA

Metropolis Capital Ltd increased its stake in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 17.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 6,991,257 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,031,659 shares during the quarter. News accounts for about 5.8% of Metropolis Capital Ltd’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 9th largest position. Metropolis Capital Ltd owned 1.25% of News worth $182,612,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of News by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 42,496 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,305,000 after purchasing an additional 395 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC increased its position in shares of News by 2.9% during the 3rd quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC now owns 14,276 shares of the company’s stock worth $438,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares in the last quarter. Kaufman Rossin Wealth LLC lifted its holdings in News by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Kaufman Rossin Wealth LLC now owns 11,161 shares of the company’s stock valued at $343,000 after purchasing an additional 465 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC grew its stake in News by 1.3% during the third quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 36,568 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,123,000 after buying an additional 481 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of News by 5.9% in the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 10,139 shares of the company’s stock valued at $311,000 after acquiring an additional 563 shares during the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Weiss Ratings downgraded News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Wall Street Zen upgraded News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. Zacks Research upgraded shares of News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price objective on shares of News in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $37.02.

News Price Performance

News stock opened at $24.40 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $13.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.02 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 quick ratio of 1.69, a current ratio of 1.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $24.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.82.

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

News Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Shareholders 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 of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. News’s payout ratio is currently 9.85%.

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.