News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) was downgraded by research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Sunday.

NWSA has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Guggenheim raised their target price 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. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on News from $44.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 23rd. Citigroup began coverage on News in a research report on Friday, January 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $36.00 target price for the company. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded News to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.25.

News Price Performance

News stock opened at $28.12 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $15.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.35 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.38. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $28.23 and a 200 day moving average price of $27.56. News has a 1 year low of $22.65 and a 1 year high of $30.03.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.05. News had a return on equity of 4.76% and a net margin of 3.49%. The business had revenue of $2.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.16 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that News will post 0.91 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of News

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NWSA. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in News in the third quarter valued at about $39,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of News during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $49,000. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of News during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $79,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of News in the third quarter worth $85,000. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. raised its holdings in News by 18.5% in the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 3,334 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 521 shares in the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.