Franklin Resources Inc. Buys 92,244 Shares of Fox Co. (NASDAQ:FOXA)

Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Fox Co. (NASDAQ:FOXA) by 108.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 177,342 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 92,244 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in FOX were worth $7,369,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in FOX by 44,205.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,915,576 shares of the company’s stock worth $335,066,000 after purchasing an additional 7,897,710 shares in the last quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of FOX by 228.4% during the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,387,107 shares of the company’s stock worth $58,716,000 after buying an additional 964,737 shares in the last quarter. AXA S.A. raised its position in FOX by 294.2% in the 2nd quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 888,476 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,537,000 after buying an additional 663,089 shares during the last quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP raised its position in FOX by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 18,495,954 shares of the company’s stock valued at $635,706,000 after buying an additional 597,450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in FOX by 25.5% in the 2nd quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 2,420,940 shares of the company’s stock valued at $83,208,000 after acquiring an additional 492,467 shares in the last quarter. 52.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on FOXA shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of FOX from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Cfra reissued a “sell” rating on shares of FOX in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. UBS Group raised their price objective on FOX from $44.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Loop Capital upped their target price on FOX from $48.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on FOX from $51.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.87.

FOX Stock Up 1.4 %

FOX stock opened at $49.53 on Monday. Fox Co. has a twelve month low of $28.28 and a twelve month high of $50.63. The stock has a market cap of $22.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 0.77. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $45.14 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.59. The company has a quick ratio of 2.33, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

FOX (NASDAQ:FOXA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.33. FOX had a return on equity of 16.49% and a net margin of 13.40%. The business had revenue of $3.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.38 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.09 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Fox Co. will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Chairman Keith Rupert Murdoch sold 186,871 shares of FOX stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.22, for a total value of $8,637,177.62. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO John Nallen sold 182,481 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.73, for a total value of $7,979,894.13. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 249,424 shares in the company, valued at $10,907,311.52. This represents a 42.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 469,352 shares of company stock valued at $20,822,072. 21.77% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

FOX Profile

Fox Corporation operates as a news, sports, and entertainment company in the United States (U.S.). The company operates through four segments: Cable Network Programming, Television, Credible, and The FOX Studio Lot. The Cable Network Programming segment produces and licenses news and sports content for distribution through traditional cable television systems, direct broadcast satellite operators and telecommunication companies, virtual multi-channel video programming distributors, and other digital platforms primarily in the U.S.