Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Acquires 551 Shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 1.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 33,219 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 551 shares during the period. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in News were worth $816,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NWSA. Ieq Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of News in the 3rd quarter valued at $253,000. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. lifted its stake in News by 1,732.4% in the 4th quarter. Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 96,898 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,379,000 after acquiring an additional 91,610 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings in shares of News by 321.4% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 1,155,073 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,171,000 after purchasing an additional 880,977 shares during the last quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of News by 34.0% in the third quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 96,548 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,937,000 after purchasing an additional 24,496 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mirabella Financial Services LLP bought a new position in News in the third quarter valued at $496,000. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

News Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of NWSA stock opened at $24.21 on Friday. News Co. has a 12-month low of $16.35 and a 12-month high of $28.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $25.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.33, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.33. The company has a market capitalization of $13.83 billion, a PE ratio of 60.53 and a beta of 1.33.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.20 by $0.06. News had a return on equity of 4.14% and a net margin of 2.29%. The business had revenue of $2.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.56 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.14 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that News Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

News Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a Semi-Annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 13th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. News’s dividend payout ratio is 50.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on NWSA. Macquarie upgraded News from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 8th. StockNews.com raised shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 19th. Finally, TheStreet upgraded News from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 7th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $29.50.

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 in six segments: Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, Dow Jones, Book Publishing, News Media, and Other.