Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD Sells 15,066,584 Shares of News Corporation $NWSA

Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD cut its holdings in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 37.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 24,931,154 shares of the company’s stock after selling 15,066,584 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD’s holdings in News were worth $678,627,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new stake in News in the 1st quarter valued at about $487,000. Credit Agricole S A increased its position in News by 6.3% in the 1st quarter. Credit Agricole S A now owns 113,866 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,099,000 after buying an additional 6,730 shares in the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment increased its position in News by 8.5% in the 1st quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 54,679 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,454,000 after buying an additional 4,283 shares in the last quarter. Maven Securities LTD increased its position in News by 0.3% in the 1st quarter. Maven Securities LTD now owns 283,571 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,719,000 after buying an additional 730 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its position in News by 6.0% in the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,193,906 shares of the company’s stock valued at $114,158,000 after buying an additional 237,730 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on NWSA. Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $32.70 target price on shares of News in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on News from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $45.00 target price on shares of News in a research report on Thursday, May 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $38.62.

News Stock Performance

Shares of NWSA opened at $30.50 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a current ratio of 1.84. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $29.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.15. The firm has a market capitalization of $17.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.66 and a beta of 1.23. News Corporation has a 52 week low of $23.38 and a 52 week high of $30.75.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.19 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.09 billion. News had a return on equity of 5.66% and a net margin of 13.21%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.17 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a half year 25 dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 70.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 10th. News’s payout ratio is presently 9.62%.

News Company 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.