Edgestream Partners L.P. Buys Shares of 26,578 News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Edgestream Partners L.P. bought a new position in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 26,578 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $732,000.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of NWSA. Barclays PLC boosted its position in shares of News by 124.0% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,713,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $391,832,000 after purchasing an additional 8,144,856 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its holdings in shares of News by 374.6% in the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,160,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,488,000 after buying an additional 1,704,944 shares in the last quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of News during the 3rd quarter valued at $44,585,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of News by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,799,596 shares of the company’s stock worth $689,397,000 after acquiring an additional 1,476,224 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. grew its holdings in shares of News by 1,815.4% in the 3rd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 1,413,158 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,632,000 after acquiring an additional 1,339,379 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on NWSA shares. UBS Group upgraded News from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com raised News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Guggenheim increased their target price on shares of News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Citigroup started coverage on shares of News in a report on Friday, January 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded News to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $39.25.

News Stock Performance

NWSA stock opened at $26.94 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $15.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 36.90 and a beta of 1.34. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $28.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $27.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.65, a current ratio of 1.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22. News Co. has a 12 month low of $22.65 and a 12 month high of $30.69.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.04. News had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 5.31%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that News Co. will post 0.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. News’s payout ratio is 27.40%.

News Company Profile

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.