News Corp. Shares Popped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of diversified media giant News Corp. (NAS: NWSA) surged 20% on Thursday after announcing solid fourth-quarter results and several shareholder-friendly moves.

So what: The phone-hacking scandal at its British tabloid has put pressure on the shares in recent weeks, so today's stack of good news is the best answer investors could have hoped for. In addition to reporting a market-topping quarter, management announced plans to expand its stock buyback plan -- the company is already set to repurchase $5 billion in stock over the next year -- if the shares remain at depressed levels.

Now what: Media titan Rupert Murdoch also went out of his way to address investors' qualitative worries. He reassured Wall Street that COO Chase Carey was next in line if anything happened to him (easing concerns that his son James would take over) and also promised that the company would make acquisitions only if they returned at least 15% (easing concerns that he was an empire-builder). In other words, News Corp. is certainly worth keeping an eye on.

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At the time thisarticle was published Fool contributorBrian Pacamparaowns no position in any of the companies mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days.We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Fool'sdisclosure policyalways gets a perfect score.

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