News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) Shares Sold by B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG decreased its position in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 55.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 9,459 shares of the company’s stock after selling 11,657 shares during the quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. AG’s holdings in News were worth $261,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NWSA. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of News by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 50,952,317 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,403,227,000 after purchasing an additional 632,721 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its stake in shares of News by 6.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,799,596 shares of the company’s stock worth $689,397,000 after acquiring an additional 1,476,224 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC grew its stake in shares of News by 124.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,713,823 shares of the company’s stock worth $391,832,000 after acquiring an additional 8,144,856 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of News by 0.9% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,622,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $255,457,000 after acquiring an additional 90,419 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in News during the 4th quarter worth about $172,357,000. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on NWSA shares. UBS Group upgraded News from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of News in a report on Friday, January 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price objective on the stock. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of News from $44.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded News to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $39.25.

News Trading Down 5.7 %

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $24.58 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $27.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $27.78. News Co. has a 12 month low of $22.65 and a 12 month high of $30.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.65. The company has a market capitalization of $13.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.67 and a beta of 1.34.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.04. News had a return on equity of 5.31% and a net margin of 4.22%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that News Co. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. News’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.40%.

News Profile

News Corporation, a media and information services company, creates and distributes authoritative and engaging content, and other products and services for consumers and businesses worldwide. It operates through six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other.