News Corporation $NWS Shares Sold by Burgundy Asset Management Ltd.

Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWS) by 1.7% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,896,357 shares of the company’s stock after selling 33,150 shares during the quarter. Burgundy Asset Management Ltd. owned about 0.34% of News worth $64,230,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of News by 23.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,819,105 shares of the company’s stock worth $304,700,000 after purchasing an additional 1,657,727 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in News by 0.4% during the third quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,960,509 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,733,000 after buying an additional 7,675 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of News by 2.6% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 846,279 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,036,000 after acquiring an additional 21,638 shares during the last quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd raised its stake in shares of News by 11.9% in the 3rd quarter. Metropolis Capital Ltd now owns 766,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,469,000 after acquiring an additional 81,387 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of News by 14.1% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 661,412 shares of the company’s stock valued at $22,852,000 after acquiring an additional 81,986 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 14.63% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently weighed in on NWS. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of News from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Zacks Research raised News from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, News currently has an average rating of “Buy”.

News Trading Up 1.8%

NASDAQ:NWS opened at $26.69 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $28.68 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.81, a quick ratio of 1.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. News Corporation has a 12-month low of $25.49 and a 12-month high of $35.58. The firm has a market cap of $14.82 billion, a PE ratio of 13.15 and a beta of 0.96.

News (NASDAQ:NWS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The company reported $0.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.25 by $0.15. News had a return on equity of 5.94% and a net margin of 13.35%.The company had revenue of $2.31 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.30 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that News Corporation will post 1.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

News Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 8th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a yield of 73.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 11th. News’s payout ratio is 9.85%.

News Profile

News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS) is a global media and information services company engaged in news and digital real estate, book publishing and other media businesses. The company’s operations include print and digital newsbrands, business and financial information services, consumer platforms for property listings, and a major book publishing arm. Through its subsidiaries and brands, News Corp produces news content, market and financial reporting, online real-estate marketplaces and trade and consumer publishing products.

Key areas of activity include news and information, where the company publishes national and regional newspapers and operates business information services; book publishing through a well-known global publisher; and property-related digital businesses that operate online marketplaces for real estate listings.