News Corporation (NWS)
NEUTRALFundamental
59
Price
$34.82
Market Cap
$18.66B
Part 1 · What the company is worth
Overview
News Corporation owns a collection of separate media businesses: Dow Jones (The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, and financial data and risk-compliance tools), Digital Real Estate Services (majority stakes in REA Group in Australia and Move/Realtor.com in the US), Book Publishing (HarperCollins) and News Media (The Times, The Sun, The Australian, New York Post). Rupert Murdoch's family controls the company through a dual-class share structure that gives it outsized voting power relative to its economic ownership.
How it makes money
Each segment monetizes differently: Dow Jones sells subscriptions to the Journal and to risk-and-compliance data products, and licenses financial data to institutions. Digital Real Estate earns fees from real-estate agents who pay to list and promote properties online. Book Publishing earns a share of each book sold. News Media still leans on advertising and subscriptions, but advertising's share of total company revenue has fallen to about 15% as digital subscriptions and real-estate and data fees have grown to dominate.
Revenue by segment
The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, financial newswires and risk-and-compliance data products sold mainly by subscription.
HarperCollins publishes and distributes fiction, non-fiction and children's books worldwide, earning a share of each copy sold.
Newspapers and news websites including The Times, The Sun, The Australian and the New York Post, funded by advertising and subscriptions.
Majority-owned real-estate listing platforms — REA Group in Australia and Move/Realtor.com in the US — earning fees from agents and developers.
Competitive moat
Brand · NarrowMastheads like The Wall Street Journal and long-established real-estate platforms like REA Group and Realtor.com built trust and traffic over decades that a new entrant cannot buy quickly, especially in real estate where the largest listing site tends to attract the most agents and buyers in a reinforcing loop. But each individual business — newspapers, books, real estate listings — faces its own capable direct competitors, so the advantage is uneven across the portfolio.
What drives demand
Moderately cyclicalDigital subscriptions to the Journal and book sales are relatively steady household spending that survives most downturns. Digital Real Estate Services is more exposed to the housing cycle: fewer homes listed for sale means fewer agents paying for premium placement, so a housing slowdown in Australia or the US flows fairly directly into that segment's revenue.
Key risks
- Controlling shareholder structure — A dual-class share structure gives the Murdoch family voting control well beyond its economic ownership stake, and disagreement among family members over the company's direction is a disclosed source of uncertainty.
- Housing market exposure at Digital Real Estate — REA Group and Move earn fees tied to property listings and agent spending, so a slowdown in home sales in Australia or the US directly reduces this segment's revenue.
- Structural decline in print advertising — Print advertising continues to decline even as digital advertising grows, and News Media's traditional revenue base keeps shrinking as a share of the total company.
- Foreign currency exposure — REA Group's results are earned mostly in Australian dollars, so currency swings against the US dollar can move reported segment revenue even when the underlying business is unchanged.
The case for
Buyers argue that Digital Real Estate Services and Dow Jones are now the company's real growth engines, replacing a legacy newspaper business, and that REA Group and Realtor.com's scale in online property listings gives them a durable edge over smaller regional competitors.
The case against
Sellers fear that a housing market slowdown would hit Digital Real Estate Services directly, that print advertising and News Media keep shrinking as a share of the business, and that a controlling family stake with internal disagreements adds a layer of governance uncertainty outside shareholders cannot resolve.
Written by the editors, published on August 18, 2026
Direct competitors
Who this company fights with for the same customers
No editorial profile for this company yet
No competitor list for this company yet.
Balance Sheet & Liquidity
Revenue
$9.03B
Trailing 12 months (through 6/30/2026)
Net Income
$573M
Trailing 12 months (through 6/30/2026)
Free Cash Flow
$811M
Total Equity
$8.53B
Total Liabilities
$6.31B
Current Ratio
1.62
Interest Coverage
-
Debt/EBITDA
2.18
Earnings Per Share
Revenue & Net Income
Free Cash Flow
Income Breakdown
Historical statement
Margins over time
Debt over time
How heavy the debt is
Growth grid
Growth — Revenue
Fair Value Estimation
Fair Value
$28.31
Current Price
$34.82
Margin of Safety
-23.0%
Fair Value Range
$20.79 - $35.83
Estimation Methods
Valuation Metrics
P/E Ratio
34.03
ROE
6.7%
P/B Ratio
2.38
P/FCF
25.02
Gross Margin
-
ROIC
-
Profitability Radar
Value Creation (Economic Moat)
ROIC
-
WACC
8.4%
ROIC − WACC
-
Fundamental Analysis Criteria
Passed (14)
- EPS shows upward trend
- Price CAGR 11.34%
- P/FCF 25.02
- P/B Ratio 2.38
- Debt/Equity ratio
- Positive Free Cash Flow
- Current Ratio
- Debt/EBITDA
- Return on Tangible Assets
- Analyst Consensus 93% Buy
- Earnings Surprise avg 26.4%
- Earnings Quality (OCF/NI) 2.16
- Share Dilution -2.4%
- Piotroski F-Score 5/9
Failed (8)
- CapEx intensity
- Low reliance on intangibles
- Price below Graham Number
- DCF valuation (Overvalued)
- ROE 6.6%
- Revenue Growth 5Y -0.7%
- PEG Ratio 2.20
- Net Margin Trend 6.3% vs 14.0%
Unavailable (5)
- ROIC NaN%
- Gross Margin NaN%
- Dividend Payout NaN%
- Operating Margin NaN%
- Interest Coverage
Piotroski F-Score
Mixed signals: some areas need attention
Earnings Quality
High quality: earnings backed by cash
Share Dilution
Buying back shares. Shareholder friendly
Governance
Executive Team
| Name | Title | Age |
|---|---|---|
| Mr. Robert J. Thomson | CEO & Director | 64 |
| Ms. Lavanya Chandrashekar | Chief Financial Officer | 53 |
| Mr. David B. Pitofsky | Executive VP & General Counsel | 60 |
| Ms. Ruth Allen | Executive VP & Chief Human Resources Officer | 46 |
| Ms. Marygrace DeGrazio | Chief Accounting Officer | 49 |
| Mr. Julian Delany | Executive VP & Chief Technology Officer | 52 |
| Mr. Michael Florin | Senior VP & Head of Investor Relations | - |
| Mr. Arthur Bochner | Executive VP & Chief Communications Officer | - |
| Ms. Anoushka Healy | Executive VP & Chief Strategy Officer | - |
| Mr. Michael L. Bunder | Senior VP, Deputy General Counsel & Corporate Secretary | - |
Part 2 · The price and when to enter
This part won't tell you whether the company is worth owning: it helps you choose when to buy it, once the fundamentals have convinced you. Inside: technical analysis, potential, historical drawdowns, gamma exposure.
Latest News
Recent headlines for NWS, sourced from Markets Gazette.