West Tower Group LLC Grows Stock Position in News Corporation $NWSA

West Tower Group LLC increased its holdings in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 83.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 38,454 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,480 shares during the quarter. News makes up about 2.5% of West Tower Group LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 11th largest position. West Tower Group LLC’s holdings in News were worth $1,143,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in NWSA. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of News in the 1st quarter worth about $85,213,000. 59 North Capital Management LP boosted its position in shares of News by 24.4% in the 1st quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 11,147,654 shares of the company’s stock worth $303,439,000 after buying an additional 2,185,542 shares in the last quarter. Dodge & Cox boosted its position in shares of News by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 13,846,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $376,896,000 after buying an additional 2,183,613 shares in the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in shares of News by 1,025.4% in the 2nd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,904,943 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,615,000 after buying an additional 1,735,668 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of News by 1,338.0% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,271,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,782,000 after buying an additional 1,182,858 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NWSA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of News in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of News from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. Finally, Macquarie reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $32.70 price objective on shares of News in a research report on Wednesday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, News presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $38.62.

News Stock Up 0.4%

NWSA stock opened at $26.02 on Monday. News Corporation has a twelve month low of $23.38 and a twelve month high of $31.61. The company has a current ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The company has a market capitalization of $14.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.51 and a beta of 1.17. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.07 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.41.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19. News had a net margin of 13.21% and a return on equity of 5.66%. The business had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.17 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a half year 25 dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 10th. This represents a dividend yield of 70.0%. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.62%.

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.