KBC Group NV Acquires 43,145 Shares of News Corporation $NWSA

KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in shares of News Corporation (NASDAQ:NWSA) by 66.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 107,716 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 43,145 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in News were worth $2,685,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in News in the fourth quarter valued at about $188,788,000. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings 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 worth $241,054,000 after acquiring an additional 6,742,836 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its stake in shares of News by 2,348.9% in the 4th quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,664,644 shares of the company’s stock valued at $147,961,000 after purchasing an additional 5,433,332 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of News by 16.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 31,356,593 shares of the company’s stock valued at $965,673,000 after purchasing an additional 4,448,929 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of News by 46.6% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,706,339 shares of the company’s stock valued at $236,662,000 after purchasing an additional 2,449,552 shares during the last quarter. 66.97% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $34.00 price objective on shares of News in a research note on Sunday, May 10th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of News from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Citigroup dropped their price target on News from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded News from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $37.14.

News Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ NWSA opened at $26.76 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $26.45 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.57. The stock has a market cap of $14.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.31 and a beta of 0.89. News Corporation has a 52-week low of $22.20 and a 52-week high of $31.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.59 and a current ratio of 1.70.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $2.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.11 billion. News had a net margin of 12.92% and a return on equity of 6.12%. News’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.17 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that News Corporation will post 0.92 EPS for the current year.

News 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.