Balyasny Asset Management L.P. Has $40.06 Million Position in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Balyasny Asset Management L.P. trimmed its stake in shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 24.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,454,443 shares of the company’s stock after selling 467,809 shares during the quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P.’s holdings in News were worth $40,055,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of News by 124.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,713,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $391,832,000 after acquiring an additional 8,144,856 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in shares of News by 30.3% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,458,869 shares of the company’s stock valued at $38,850,000 after purchasing an additional 338,958 shares in the last quarter. Miracle Mile Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of News during the fourth quarter worth about $374,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of News by 2.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 435,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,594,000 after buying an additional 12,345 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in News by 374.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,160,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,488,000 after buying an additional 1,704,944 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on NWSA. Guggenheim raised their price target on shares of News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Citigroup assumed coverage on News in a report on Friday, January 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com cut News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on News from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, April 11th. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of News from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $38.80.

News Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NWSA stock opened at $27.72 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $15.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.97 and a beta of 1.30. News Co. has a fifty-two week low of $22.65 and a fifty-two week high of $30.69. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $26.73 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $27.77. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.65 and a current ratio of 1.73.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.04. News had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 5.31%. Research analysts forecast that News Co. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th were given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.44%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 12th. News’s payout ratio is 27.40%.

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.