Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) Shares Up 6.7%

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN)’s share price rose 6.7% during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $5.47 and last traded at $5.44. Approximately 477,599 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 63% from the average daily volume of 1,287,958 shares. The stock had previously closed at $5.10.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GTN has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Guggenheim lowered their target price on Gray Television from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of Gray Television from $6.00 to $4.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Benchmark cut their target price on shares of Gray Television from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Gray Television has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $8.33.

Gray Television Price Performance

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $5.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $5.54. The company has a market cap of $529.40 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -44.92, a P/E/G ratio of 0.10 and a beta of 1.49. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.98.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.10 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $826.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $840.33 million. Gray Television had a net margin of 1.84% and a return on equity of 3.02%. The company’s revenue was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.10) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Gray Television, Inc. will post 4.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gray Television Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.99%. Gray Television’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -266.67%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Gray Television by 9.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,662,398 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,786,000 after acquiring an additional 506,106 shares in the last quarter. Capital Management Corp VA raised its holdings in shares of Gray Television by 18.6% during the first quarter. Capital Management Corp VA now owns 3,670,410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,197,000 after purchasing an additional 575,527 shares during the period. Tributary Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Gray Television by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 1,334,714 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,941,000 after purchasing an additional 10,093 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Gray Television by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,307,308 shares of the company’s stock worth $8,262,000 after purchasing an additional 23,878 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Gray Television by 4.8% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,055,389 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,488,000 after buying an additional 48,623 shares during the period. 78.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Gray Television

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.