News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,440,000 shares, a decline of 22.0% from the November 30th total of 8,260,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,160,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s stock are sold short.
Shares of News stock traded down $0.03 on Friday, reaching $22.50. The stock had a trading volume of 3,066,270 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,211,434. News has a 1 year low of $18.26 and a 1 year high of $27.97. The company has a market cap of $13.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.11 and a beta of 1.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The business’s 50 day moving average is $22.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.33.
News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 4th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.10. News had a net margin of 5.05% and a return on equity of 5.34%. The firm had revenue of $2.50 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.08 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that News will post 0.65 EPS for the current fiscal year.
A number of research firms recently issued reports on NWSA. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 16th. TheStreet upgraded shares of News from a “c+” rating to a “b” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 4th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, According to data from MarketBeat, News has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $26.96.
Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NWSA. Moors & Cabot Inc. bought a new position in shares of News in the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. Liberty Wealth Management LLC grew its position in News by 2,486.5% during the second quarter. Liberty Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,345 shares of the company’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 1,293 shares during the last quarter. FORA Capital LLC bought a new position in News during the second quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in News by 98.4% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 3,911 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after acquiring an additional 1,940 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Captrust Financial Advisors grew its position in News by 9.0% during the third quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 5,224 shares of the company’s stock valued at $123,000 after acquiring an additional 431 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 64.36% of the company’s stock.
News Company Profile
News Corp. engages in the creation and distribution of media, news, education, and information services. It operates through the following segments: News and Information Services, Book Publishing, Digital Real Estate Services, Subscription Video Services, and Other. The News and Information Services segment consists of Dow Jones, News Corp Australia, News UK, the New York Post, and News America Marketing.
