Stevens Capital Management LP Acquires New Holdings in News Corporation $NWSA

Stevens Capital Management LP acquired a new stake in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 20,848 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $545,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Swedbank AB lifted its holdings in News by 77.3% during the 4th quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 192,326 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,024,000 after buying an additional 83,821 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of News by 14.2% in the fourth quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 823,989 shares of the company’s stock valued at $21,580,000 after buying an additional 102,259 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its position in shares of News by 5.8% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd now owns 46,529 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,215,000 after acquiring an additional 2,562 shares during the last quarter. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of News in the fourth quarter worth approximately $152,000. Finally, Composition Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in News by 8.8% in the fourth quarter. Composition Wealth LLC now owns 13,956 shares of the company’s stock valued at $365,000 after acquiring an additional 1,132 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

News Price Performance

News stock opened at $25.44 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $24.72 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $25.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.53 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 1.81. News Corporation has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $31.61.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.33 by $0.07. News had a net margin of 13.35% and a return on equity of 5.94%. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.33 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that News Corporation will post 0.97 earnings per share for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 11th. News’s payout ratio is presently 9.85%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on NWSA. Weiss Ratings raised shares of News from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, April 24th. Zacks Research raised shares of News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 target price on shares of News in a report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup cut their price target on shares of News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.02.

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.