Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.25 EPS

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The company reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.25, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $823.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $824.98 million. Gray Television had a negative return on equity of 3.76% and a negative net margin of 2.32%. Gray Television’s revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.48) earnings per share.

Gray Television Stock Up 0.9 %

GTN stock traded up $0.06 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $6.76. The company had a trading volume of 791,110 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,126,846. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $5.91 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $7.39. The company has a market capitalization of $657.07 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.79, a PEG ratio of 0.15 and a beta of 1.55. Gray Television has a 52 week low of $5.44 and a 52 week high of $10.69.

Gray Television Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.73%. Gray Television’s dividend payout ratio is -23.02%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Gray Television

In related news, CEO Hilton H. Howell, Jr. purchased 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of $8.09 per share, for a total transaction of $80,900.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,982,386 shares in the company, valued at $24,127,502.74. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 13.83% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on GTN shares. Benchmark raised their price target on Gray Television from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on Gray Television from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barrington Research reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Gray Television in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.40.

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.