Levin Capital Strategies L.P. Has $1.25 Million Stock Holdings in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Levin Capital Strategies L.P. increased its holdings in shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 18.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 45,349 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,000 shares during the period. Levin Capital Strategies L.P.’s holdings in News were worth $1,249,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Barclays PLC raised its holdings in News by 124.0% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,713,823 shares of the company’s stock valued at $391,832,000 after acquiring an additional 8,144,856 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in News by 374.6% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,160,045 shares of the company’s stock valued at $59,488,000 after acquiring an additional 1,704,944 shares in the last quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in News in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $44,585,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in News by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 25,799,596 shares of the company’s stock valued at $689,397,000 after acquiring an additional 1,476,224 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. raised its holdings in 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 valued at $37,632,000 after acquiring an additional 1,339,379 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NWSA has been the subject of several recent research reports. Citigroup initiated coverage on News in a report on Friday, January 10th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price target for the company. Guggenheim upped their price target on News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. StockNews.com upgraded News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded News to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Loop Capital lowered 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $39.25.

News Stock Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ NWSA opened at $28.62 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $16.24 billion, a PE ratio of 39.21 and a beta of 1.35. News Co. has a one year low of $22.65 and a one year high of $30.69. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.65.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.04. News had a return on equity of 5.31% and a net margin of 4.22%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that News Co. will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.40%. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.40%.

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.