Fox Co. (NASDAQ:FOXA) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

Fox Co. (NASDAQ:FOXA - Get Free Report) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 21,510,000 shares, a decline of 6.6% from the October 15th total of 23,040,000 shares. Approximately 9.8% of the company's stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,920,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 7.4 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, COO John Nallen sold 182,481 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $43.73, for a total transaction of $7,979,894.13. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 249,424 shares in the company, valued at $10,907,311.52. This represents a 42.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman Keith Rupert Murdoch sold 100,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.05, for a total value of $4,205,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chairman now directly owns 1,258,862 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $52,935,147.10. The trade was a 7.36 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 21.77% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On FOX

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in FOX by 44,205.3% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 7,915,576 shares of the company's stock valued at $335,066,000 after acquiring an additional 7,897,710 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in FOX by 5.9% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,880,203 shares of the company's stock worth $934,354,000 after purchasing an additional 1,653,913 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. increased its holdings in FOX by 228.4% in the third quarter. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. now owns 1,387,107 shares of the company's stock worth $58,716,000 after purchasing an additional 964,737 shares in the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama lifted its stake in FOX by 1,727.2% in the second quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 965,066 shares of the company's stock valued at $33,169,000 after buying an additional 912,250 shares during the period. Finally, AXA S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of FOX by 294.2% during the 2nd quarter. AXA S.A. now owns 888,476 shares of the company's stock worth $30,537,000 after buying an additional 663,089 shares in the last quarter. 52.52% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FOXA has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of FOX from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on FOX from $41.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on shares of FOX from $43.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of FOX from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Rosenblatt Securities raised their target price on shares of FOX from $37.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Wednesday, August 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $44.00.

FOX Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of FOXA stock traded down $0.26 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $45.38. 6,035,231 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,054,425. The company has a quick ratio of 2.33, a current ratio of 2.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58. FOX has a 12 month low of $28.28 and a 12 month high of $47.58. The stock has a market cap of $20.89 billion, a PE ratio of 11.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 0.76. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $42.23 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.24.

FOX (NASDAQ:FOXA - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 4th. The company reported $1.45 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.12 by $0.33. FOX had a return on equity of 16.49% and a net margin of 13.40%. The company had revenue of $3.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.09 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that FOX will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

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.