Macquarie upgrades NWSA from Neutral to Outperform

The Rating Action

Macquarie upgraded News Corporation (NWSA) from Neutral to Outperform on 2026-05-11. The $14.9B communication services sector ticker closed at $26.54 on May 8, 2026, marking a 1.74% intraday decline from the prior trading session.

Coverage History & Consensus

As of May 1, 2026, the broad analyst consensus for NWSA across 8 covering firms split 2 Strong Buy, 4 Buy, and 2 Hold ratings, with no Sell or Strong Sell coverage. Prior to the upgrade, Macquarie held the Neutral (Hold) rating, placing it in the minority cohort of two analysts with a non-bullish stance. This shift aligns Macquarie’s rating with the 75% bullish majority of covering analysts, a split that has remained consistent since March 2026, when the consensus included 3 Strong Buy, 4 Buy, and 2 Hold ratings.

Cross-Reference to Fundamentals & Filings

The upgrade follows NWSA’s May 7, 2026 Q3 2026 earnings release and subsequent Seeking Alpha earnings call transcript, where actual EPS of $0.21 topped consensus estimates by $0.05 (31% upside) and revenue of $2.185B exceeded consensus by ~$72M, per Zacks investment research. Additional context includes Form 4 filings showing CEO Robert J. Thomson received 396,446 no-cost stock awards on August 7, 2025, and the December 31, 2025 13F summary showing 584 institutional holders own 68% of NWSA’s float, with 266 firms increasing positions and 220 reducing positions in the fourth quarter of 2025.

What This Rating Change Does NOT Signal

1) No formal price target: The provided context does not reference a numerical price target tied to Macquarie’s upgrade, so the action only reflects a shift in qualitative rating without explicit valuation guidance.

2) No reflection of post-May 7 unrelated news: The upgrade does not account for the May 13 PR Newswire report on U.S. rental market trends, which has no direct link to NWSA’s core media and information services segments.

3) No update to 2026 institutional positioning: The latest 13F data is from December 31, 2025, four months prior to the rating change, so it does not reflect institutional activity between January and May 2026.