Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC Takes $14.45 Million Position in News Corporation $NWSA

Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC acquired a new stake in News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 470,404 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,446,000. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC owned approximately 0.08% of News at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of NWSA. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of News by 488.0% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 8,124,507 shares of the company’s stock valued at $241,054,000 after purchasing an additional 6,742,836 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in News during the 2nd quarter worth about $195,910,000. Barclays PLC boosted its stake in News by 39.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 14,875,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $456,830,000 after purchasing an additional 4,214,562 shares during the period. Independent Franchise Partners LLP grew its holdings in News by 7.3% during the 2nd quarter. Independent Franchise Partners LLP now owns 29,170,531 shares of the company’s stock valued at $866,948,000 after buying an additional 1,980,941 shares in the last quarter. Finally, 59 North Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of News by 13.5% during the second quarter. 59 North Capital Management LP now owns 12,650,867 shares of the company’s stock valued at $375,984,000 after buying an additional 1,503,213 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 66.97% of the company’s stock.

News Price Performance

NWSA opened at $24.62 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.13 and a beta of 0.98. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $25.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.57. News Corporation has a 12-month low of $22.20 and a 12-month high of $31.61.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $2.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.30 billion. News had a return on equity of 5.94% and a net margin of 13.35%.News’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.33 EPS. Equities analysts predict that News Corporation will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a dividend yield of 83.0%. News’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 9.85%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on NWSA shares. Guggenheim cut their price objective on shares of News from $45.00 to $43.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of News from $40.00 to $38.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. Morgan Stanley set a $32.40 price target on shares of News in a research report on Friday, February 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $37.02.

News Company Profile

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWSA) is a global diversified media and information services company headquartered in New York City. It operates through two principal segments: News and Information Services, and Digital Real Estate Services. The company’s news and information division oversees a portfolio of leading newspapers, magazines and digital platforms, offering content across print and online channels. Its properties include Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, News UK titles such as The Times and The Sun, as well as News Corp Australia mastheads.

In addition to its journalism assets, News Corp is a significant player in book publishing through HarperCollins, one of the world’s largest consumer publishers.