KBC Group NV Sells 54,517 Shares of News Corporation $NWSA

KBC Group NV reduced its position in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 45.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 64,571 shares of the company’s stock after selling 54,517 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in News were worth $1,687,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of News by 23.2% in the fourth quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,648 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,000 after acquiring an additional 498 shares during the last quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of News by 7.8% in the fourth quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. now owns 8,753 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,000 after acquiring an additional 634 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of News by 4.7% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 953,459 shares of the company’s stock worth $24,904,000 after acquiring an additional 42,795 shares during the last quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC bought a new position in shares of News in the fourth quarter worth about $190,000. Finally, Oak Thistle LLC bought a new position in shares of News in the fourth quarter worth about $1,944,000. 66.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on NWSA shares. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price target on shares of News in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of News from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 5th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of News from $40.00 to $39.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, February 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 4th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $37.02.

News Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NASDAQ NWSA opened at $25.97 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $14.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.79 and a beta of 0.91. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $24.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $25.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a current ratio of 1.81. News Corporation has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $31.61.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $2.36 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.30 billion. News had a net margin of 13.35% and a return on equity of 5.94%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.33 earnings per share. Analysts expect that News Corporation will post 0.97 EPS for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 11th. News’s dividend payout ratio is 9.85%.

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.