National Pension Service Sells 52,627 Shares of News Corporation $NWSA

National Pension Service trimmed its position in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 46.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 60,532 shares of the company’s stock after selling 52,627 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in News were worth $1,503,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of News by 120.6% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 2,326,616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $58,002,000 after buying an additional 1,272,083 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in News by 2.3% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,245,597 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,842,000 after acquiring an additional 94,368 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in News by 80.9% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,069,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,441,000 after acquiring an additional 1,819,652 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in News by 331.0% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 730,471 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,138,000 after acquiring an additional 561,005 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in News by 54.5% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 567,584 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,149,000 after purchasing an additional 200,262 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. Zacks Research lowered News from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of News from $36.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 21st. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $35.00 target price on shares of News in a report on Thursday, August 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of News from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $38.50.

News Stock Performance

Shares of News stock opened at $29.44 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.51, a current ratio of 1.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $28.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.62. News Corporation has a 52 week low of $22.20 and a 52 week high of $31.66. The company has a market capitalization of $15.93 billion, a PE ratio of 28.58 and a beta of 0.91.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $2.34 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.25 billion. News had a return on equity of 7.09% and a net margin of 6.35%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that News Corporation will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a yield of 68.0%. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.42%.

About News

News Corp is a global media and information-services company headquartered in New York. The company owns and operates businesses in news, publishing, digital real estate services and subscription-based information products, serving consumers, businesses and professional audiences across multiple markets.

Its portfolio includes Dow Jones, which provides business news, financial information and research through publications and services such as The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s; News UK, publisher of The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun; and News Corp Australia, which operates newspapers and digital media brands.