News Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.10 (NASDAQ:NWSA)

News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a dividend of 0.10 per share on Wednesday, April 9th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.39%.

News has a payout ratio of 20.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect News to earn $1.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 16.0%.

News Stock Up 0.9 %

NASDAQ:NWSA traded up $0.26 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $28.78. 4,033,006 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,564,947. The company has a fifty day moving average of $28.19 and a 200 day moving average of $27.56. News has a twelve month low of $22.65 and a twelve month high of $30.03. The company has a market capitalization of $16.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.42 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 1.38.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.29 by $0.04. News had a return on equity of 4.76% and a net margin of 3.49%. On average, analysts forecast that News will post 0.91 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on NWSA. StockNews.com lowered News from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday. Loop Capital dropped their target price on News from $44.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 23rd. UBS Group raised News from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Seaport Res Ptn raised News to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Guggenheim raised their target price on News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, News currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $39.25.

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