Fox Co. (NASDAQ:FOXA) Declares $0.27 Semi-annual Dividend

Fox Co. (NASDAQ:FOXA) declared a semi-annual dividend on Wednesday, February 5th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be given a dividend of 0.27 per share on Wednesday, March 26th. This represents a dividend yield of 1%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 5th.

FOX has increased its dividend by an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years. FOX has a payout ratio of 14.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect FOX to earn $3.88 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.54 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 13.9%.

FOX Price Performance

NASDAQ FOXA opened at $54.53 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 2.33 and a current ratio of 2.59. FOX has a 52-week low of $28.28 and a 52-week high of $55.56. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $43.95. The stock has a market cap of $24.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.33, a PEG ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 0.76.

FOX (NASDAQ:FOXA) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 4th. The company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.34. The company had revenue of $5.08 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.78 billion. FOX had a net margin of 13.40% and a return on equity of 16.49%. The firm’s revenue was up 19.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.34 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that FOX will post 4.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other FOX news, insider Adam G. Ciongoli sold 1,278 shares of FOX stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $54.13, for a total transaction of $69,178.14. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 29,897 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,618,324.61. The trade was a 4.10 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Keith Rupert Murdoch sold 186,871 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $46.22, for a total transaction of $8,637,177.62. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 21.77% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on FOX from $49.00 to $54.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Moffett Nathanson lowered FOX from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $51.00 to $52.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com downgraded FOX from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of FOX from $42.00 to $47.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Macquarie restated a “neutral” rating and set a $43.00 target price on shares of FOX in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, FOX presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $50.19.

About FOX

Fox Corporation operates as a news, sports, and entertainment company in the United States (U.S.). The company operates through four segments: Cable Network Programming, Television, Credible, and The FOX Studio Lot. The Cable Network Programming segment produces and licenses news and sports content for distribution through traditional cable television systems, direct broadcast satellite operators and telecommunication companies, virtual multi-channel video programming distributors, and other digital platforms primarily in the U.S.