News (NASDAQ:NWSA) Hits New 52-Week High – Here’s What Happened

News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $29.13 and last traded at $28.81, with a volume of 57393 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $27.85.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on NWSA. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on News from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Loop Capital upped their price target on News from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 10th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $38.00.

News Stock Up 3.9 %

The stock has a market cap of $16.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.93 and a beta of 1.34. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.59 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 1.33.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.49 billion. News had a return on equity of 4.51% and a net margin of 2.64%. The business’s revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.14 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that News Co. will post 0.85 earnings per share for the current year.

News Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a Semi-Annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a dividend yield of 0.7%. News’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.48%.

Institutional Trading of News

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NWSA. Metropolis Capital Ltd increased its stake in shares of News by 8.9% in the third quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 6,779,137 shares of the company’s stock valued at $180,528,000 after purchasing an additional 555,789 shares during the period. ING Groep NV raised its stake in News by 815.5% during the 3rd quarter. ING Groep NV now owns 429,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,440,000 after acquiring an additional 382,671 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in News by 188.3% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 491,123 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,540,000 after acquiring an additional 320,785 shares during the period. Jane Street Group LLC grew its stake in shares of News by 812.6% in the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 229,262 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,002,000 after purchasing an additional 204,141 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Achmea Investment Management B.V. increased its holdings in shares of News by 504.7% during the second quarter. Achmea Investment Management B.V. now owns 236,044 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,508,000 after purchasing an additional 197,008 shares during the period. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by 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.