Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) Receives $12.80 Average Price Target from Analysts

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, two have assigned a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $12.80.

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Barrington Research reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Gray Television in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. StockNews.com raised shares of Gray Television to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 14th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Gray Television from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th.

Gray Television Stock Performance

Shares of GTN stock opened at $5.93 on Wednesday. Gray Television has a one year low of $5.44 and a one year high of $10.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.12, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $6.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.47. The firm has a market capitalization of $576.40 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.16 and a beta of 1.57.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 23rd. The company reported ($0.24) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.16) by ($0.08). Gray Television had a negative return on equity of 3.76% and a negative net margin of 2.32%. The company had revenue of $864.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $863.31 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.88 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 19.4% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Gray Television will post 3.78 EPS for the current year.

Gray Television Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.40%. Gray Television’s payout ratio is currently -23.02%.

Insider Transactions at Gray Television

In other Gray Television news, CEO Hilton H. Howell, Jr. purchased 10,000 shares of Gray Television stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 28th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $8.09 per share, for a total transaction of $80,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,982,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,127,502.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 13.83% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Gray Television

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Gray Television by 5.0% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,156,292 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,200,000 after purchasing an additional 247,112 shares during the last quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP increased its stake in Gray Television by 61.9% during the 4th quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP now owns 85,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $769,000 after buying an additional 32,822 shares during the period. FIL Ltd increased its stake in Gray Television by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 123,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,104,000 after buying an additional 9,171 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its stake in Gray Television by 7.6% during the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 88,337 shares of the company’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 6,277 shares during the period. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP increased its stake in Gray Television by 107.9% during the 4th quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 44,310 shares of the company’s stock valued at $397,000 after buying an additional 22,994 shares during the period. 78.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Gray Television Company Profile

Gray Television, Inc, a television broadcasting company, owns and/or operates television stations and digital assets in the United States. It also broadcasts secondary digital channels affiliated to ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX, as well as various other networks and program services, including CW Plus Network, MY Network, the MeTV Network, Circle, Telemundo, THE365, and Outlaw; and local news/weather channels in various markets.