News Co. (NWSA) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 12th

News Co. (NASDAQ:NWSA) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 5th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of 0.10 per share on Wednesday, April 9th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th.

News has a payout ratio of 21.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect News to earn $1.12 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 17.9%.

News Price Performance

NWSA stock opened at $27.96 on Monday. News has a 1 year low of $22.65 and a 1 year high of $30.69. The company has a market cap of $15.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 38.30 and a beta of 1.34. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $28.27 and a 200 day moving average of $27.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.65.

News (NASDAQ:NWSA) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.04. News had a net margin of 4.22% and a return on equity of 5.31%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that News will post 0.94 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on NWSA shares. Citigroup started coverage on shares of News in a research report on Friday, January 10th. They set a “buy” rating and a $36.00 price target for the company. UBS Group raised shares of News from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of News to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Guggenheim raised their target price on shares of News from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of News from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently 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.