State of Alaska Department of Revenue Acquires New Shares in News Corporation $NWSA

State of Alaska Department of Revenue acquired a new position in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund acquired 34,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $978,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in NWSA. Metropolis Capital Ltd increased its holdings in shares of News by 26.4% during the 1st quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 8,835,157 shares of the company’s stock valued at $220,260,000 after purchasing an additional 1,843,900 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in shares of News by 2.3% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,245,597 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,842,000 after purchasing an additional 94,368 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in News by 80.9% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,069,041 shares of the company’s stock worth $101,441,000 after buying an additional 1,819,652 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in News by 120.6% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 2,326,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,002,000 after buying an additional 1,272,083 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its position in News by 174.3% during the first quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 1,911,329 shares of the company’s stock valued at $47,649,000 after buying an additional 1,214,648 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on NWSA shares. Weiss Ratings raised shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Zacks Research lowered shares of News from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $35.00 target price on shares of News in a research report on Thursday, August 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded News from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, October 3rd. Finally, Raymond James Financial started coverage on News in a report on Monday. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $35.00 price target for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, News currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.80.

News Trading Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ:NWSA opened at $30.43 on Thursday. News Corporation has a 1 year low of $22.20 and a 1 year high of $31.66. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.54 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.62 and a quick ratio of 1.51. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $29.71 and its 200-day moving average price is $27.65.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $2.34 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.25 billion. News had a net margin of 6.35% and a return on equity of 7.09%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.19 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 1.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 9th. This represents a yield of 68.0%. News’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.42%.

About News

News Corp is a global media and information-services company whose Class A common stock trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol NWSA. The company operates a portfolio of businesses spanning digital and print publishing, subscription products, professional information, real estate services and book publishing.

Its principal businesses include Dow Jones, which provides financial news, data, research and professional information through publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s; News Corp Australia and News UK, which operate newspapers and digital news platforms; and HarperCollins Publishers, which publishes fiction, nonfiction, educational and religious titles.