Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.08

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 8th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.68%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th.

Gray Television has a dividend payout ratio of -59.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Research analysts expect Gray Television to earn ($0.88) per share next year, which means the company may not be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of -36.4%.

Gray Television Stock Down 4.1 %

GTN stock traded down $0.29 during trading on Friday, reaching $6.84. The stock had a trading volume of 224,088 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,125,336. Gray Television has a one year low of $5.44 and a one year high of $10.69. The company has a quick ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.12. The company’s 50 day moving average is $5.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $7.39. The company has a market capitalization of $664.88 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.15 and a beta of 1.55.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $823.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $824.98 million. Gray Television had a negative net margin of 2.32% and a negative return on equity of 3.76%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.48) EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Gray Television will post 4.21 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GTN has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of Gray Television from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Barrington Research reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of Gray Television in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Benchmark boosted their target price on shares of Gray Television from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.40.

Insider Activity at Gray Television

In other Gray Television news, CEO Hilton H. Howell, Jr. purchased 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 2,982,386 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,127,502.74. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 13.83% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.