News (NASDAQ:NWS) Lowered to Hold Rating by Zacks Research

Zacks Research lowered shares of News (NASDAQ:NWS) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Separately, Weiss Ratings lowered shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold”.

News Trading Up 2.1%

NWS opened at $28.70 on Tuesday. News has a twelve month low of $25.49 and a twelve month high of $35.58. 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 company has a fifty day moving average of $27.35 and a 200-day moving average of $29.23. The stock has a market cap of $15.94 billion, a PE ratio of 14.14 and a beta of 0.90.

News (NASDAQ:NWS) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $2.31 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%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that News will post 1.03 EPS for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 73.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 11th. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.85%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of News by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 10,163,392 shares of the company’s stock valued at $301,141,000 after buying an additional 1,344,287 shares in the last quarter. L1 Capital Pty Ltd lifted its stake in shares of News by 26.2% in the fourth quarter. L1 Capital Pty Ltd now owns 4,273,704 shares of the company’s stock valued at $126,630,000 after buying an additional 886,156 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of News by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,728,263 shares of the company’s stock valued at $110,314,000 after buying an additional 124,871 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of News by 0.4% in the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,960,509 shares of the company’s stock valued at $67,733,000 after buying an additional 7,675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can lifted its stake in shares of News by 2,991.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,947,039 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,691,000 after buying an additional 1,884,066 shares in the last quarter. 14.63% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

News Company Profile

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS) is a global media and information services company engaged in news and digital real estate, book publishing and other media businesses. The company’s operations include print and digital newsbrands, business and financial information services, consumer platforms for property listings, and a major book publishing arm. Through its subsidiaries and brands, News Corp produces news content, market and financial reporting, online real-estate marketplaces and trade and consumer publishing products.

Key areas of activity include news and information, where the company publishes national and regional newspapers and operates business information services; book publishing through a well-known global publisher; and property-related digital businesses that operate online marketplaces for real estate listings.