State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Reduces Position in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D lowered its holdings in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 34.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 139,586 shares of the company’s stock after selling 74,304 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in News were worth $3,848,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of News in the fourth quarter valued at $139,956,000. Contour Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of News by 97.8% in the fourth quarter. Contour Asset Management LLC now owns 3,442,650 shares of the company’s stock valued at $84,517,000 after purchasing an additional 1,702,483 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its position in shares of News by 2.2% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 2,855,605 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,729,000 after purchasing an additional 61,417 shares during the period. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. grew its position in shares of News by 249.7% in the fourth quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. now owns 2,206,990 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,182,000 after purchasing an additional 1,575,803 shares during the period. Finally, Junto Capital Management LP acquired a new position in News in the fourth quarter valued at $43,928,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NWSA has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Loop Capital lifted their target price on News from $38.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on News from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $38.00.

News Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of NWSA opened at $26.34 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $27.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $26.47. The stock has a market cap of $15.01 billion, a PE ratio of 72.89 and a beta of 1.34. News Co. has a 12 month low of $19.25 and a 12 month high of $28.62. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.58 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.49 billion. News had a return on equity of 4.51% and a net margin of 2.64%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.14 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that News Co. will post 0.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a Semi-Annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 9th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th. News’s payout ratio is 55.56%.

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