Well ... the Yahoo article may be interesting, but, personally, I prefer to interrogate the numbers for myself.
For one thing there's very little growth in NWS's Turnover. You can only do so much to improve efficiency etc.. in the business, but ultimately you have to have growth in Gross Turnover. MSFT is currently in the same boat, in this regard (if you're one for reading articles you can check out page 54 in the May 15 edition of FORTUNE magazine).
Secondly, IMO, NWS is carrying too much debt, which is costing it too much on its Income Statement. If it wasn't for this, it could have added another 30% to its Bottom Line in its last Quarterly. I'm sure the shareholders would have appreciated an addition to their dividend.
And finally, its low 6% pre-tax Return on Capital Employed is not, IMO, anything "to write home about".
... and sorry about the "could be". Reading it again, it could have relevance. |
