Mufg Securities Americas Inc. Buys New Shares in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Mufg Securities Americas Inc. bought a new stake in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 5,594 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $154,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Barclays PLC grew its position 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 period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of News by 2.9% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 435,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,594,000 after acquiring an additional 12,345 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position in shares of News by 204.5% in the 4th quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 344,043 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,447,000 after acquiring an additional 231,056 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of News by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 151,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,216,000 after acquiring an additional 820 shares during the period. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of News by 35.3% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 38,289 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,064,000 after acquiring an additional 9,981 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

News Stock Performance

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $28.32 on Friday. News Co. has a 52-week low of $23.38 and a 52-week high of $30.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 1.65 and a current ratio of 1.73. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $26.77 and a 200-day moving average of $27.88. The stock has a market cap of $16.03 billion, a PE ratio of 38.80 and a beta of 1.30.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.02). News had a return on equity of 5.31% and a net margin of 4.22%. The business had revenue of $2.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.13 EPS. News’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that News Co. will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. UBS Group raised shares of News from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of News to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. StockNews.com upgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of News from $38.00 to $37.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 11th. Finally, Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $38.80.

About News

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.