News Corporation $NWSA Stake Trimmed by DeepCurrents Investment Group LLC

DeepCurrents Investment Group LLC lowered its stake in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 21.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 261,103 shares of the company’s stock after selling 71,101 shares during the quarter. DeepCurrents Investment Group LLC’s holdings in News were worth $6,820,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp increased its stake in News by 16.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock worth $965,673,000 after purchasing an additional 4,448,929 shares in the last quarter. Barclays PLC increased its stake in News by 39.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $456,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,214,562 shares in the last quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP increased its stake in News by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 14,009,242 shares of the company’s stock worth $430,224,000 after purchasing an additional 1,358,375 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in News by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,458,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $272,169,000 after purchasing an additional 88,157 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its stake in News by 11.7% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 9,072,194 shares of the company’s stock worth $278,607,000 after purchasing an additional 947,687 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on NWSA shares. Citigroup lowered their target price on News from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Wall Street Zen raised News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Zacks Research raised News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $34.00 target price on shares of News in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised News from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.14.

News Trading Down 2.4%

NASDAQ:NWSA opened at $25.68 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 1.70 and a quick ratio of 1.59. News Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $22.20 and a fifty-two week high of $31.61. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $26.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $25.46. The stock has a market cap of $14.06 billion, a PE ratio of 12.78 and a beta of 0.88.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $2.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.11 billion. News had a return on equity of 6.12% and a net margin of 12.92%.The firm’s revenue was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.17 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 0.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Company Profile

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA) is a global diversified media and information services company headquartered in New York City. It operates through two principal segments: News and Information Services, and Digital Real Estate Services. The company’s news and information division oversees a portfolio of leading newspapers, magazines and digital platforms, offering content across print and online channels. Its properties include Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, News UK titles such as The Times and The Sun, as well as News Corp Australia mastheads.

In addition to its journalism assets, News Corp is a significant player in book publishing through HarperCollins, one of the world’s largest consumer publishers.