Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $1.69

Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 26th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 10th will be given a dividend of 1.69 per share on Friday, May 24th. This represents a $6.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.25%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 9th.

Nexstar Media Group has raised its dividend by an average of 34.1% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 11 consecutive years. Nexstar Media Group has a dividend payout ratio of 39.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Nexstar Media Group to earn $18.19 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.2%.

Nexstar Media Group Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NXST traded down $2.06 during trading on Friday, reaching $158.92. 250,869 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 211,786. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $165.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $158.96. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.90. Nexstar Media Group has a twelve month low of $132.30 and a twelve month high of $187.32. The stock has a market cap of $5.31 billion, a PE ratio of 16.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.50.

Nexstar Media Group (NASDAQ:NXST) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $3.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.42 by ($1.10). Nexstar Media Group had a net margin of 7.03% and a return on equity of 14.06%. The firm had revenue of $1.30 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.32 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $8.04 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 12.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Nexstar Media Group will post 26.73 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Nexstar Media Group

In other news, CEO Perry A. Sook sold 31,758 shares of Nexstar Media Group stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total value of $5,038,724.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 636,788 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $101,032,784.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Lisbeth Mcnabb sold 2,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $165.00, for a total transaction of $379,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 12,727 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,099,955. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Perry A. Sook sold 31,758 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.66, for a total transaction of $5,038,724.28. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 636,788 shares in the company, valued at approximately $101,032,784.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 46,508 shares of company stock worth $7,487,950. Insiders own 5.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NXST has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Nexstar Media Group in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Rosenblatt Securities dropped their price objective on Nexstar Media Group from $216.00 to $213.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 13th. Finally, TheStreet raised shares of Nexstar Media Group from a “c+” rating to a “b-” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $193.83.

About Nexstar Media Group

Nexstar Media Group, Inc operates as a diversified media company that produces and distributes engaging local and national news, sports and entertainment content across the television and digital platforms in the United States. It owns, operates, programs, or provides sales and other services to various markets; and offers television programming services.