Wealthfront Advisers LLC Sells 27,043 Shares of News Corporation $NWSA

Wealthfront Advisers LLC reduced its position in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 34.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 51,619 shares of the company’s stock after selling 27,043 shares during the quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC’s holdings in News were worth $1,348,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of News by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,673,000 after buying an additional 4,448,929 shares during the period. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in News by 39.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock valued at $456,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,214,562 shares during the period. 59 North Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in News by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 14,009,242 shares of the company’s stock valued at $430,224,000 after purchasing an additional 1,358,375 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in News by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 9,072,194 shares of the company’s stock valued at $278,607,000 after purchasing an additional 947,687 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in News by 46.6% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,706,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $236,662,000 after purchasing an additional 2,449,552 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

News Stock Performance

Shares of NWSA stock opened at $26.24 on Monday. News Corporation has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $31.61. The stock has a market cap of $14.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.93 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. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $24.69 and a 200-day moving average of $25.39.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.30 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.33 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 0.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

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