Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC Makes New Investment in News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA)

Wellington Shields Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 31,200 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $860,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in News in the second quarter worth $26,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in News in the 1st quarter valued at about $34,000. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in News during the 4th quarter worth approximately $45,000. Covestor Ltd boosted its holdings in News by 125.8% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,727 shares of the company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 962 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Innealta Capital LLC acquired a new stake in News in the second quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on News from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th.

News Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NWSA traded up $0.04 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $26.97. 157,691 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,712,902. 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 Co. has a 12 month low of $19.25 and a 12 month high of $28.62. The company has a market cap of $15.37 billion, a PE ratio of 74.81 and a beta of 1.33. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $27.49 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.48.

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 firm had revenue of $2.58 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.49 billion. News had a return on equity of 4.51% and a net margin of 2.64%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.14 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that News Co. will post 0.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

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

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