TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) Cut to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com lowered shares of TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on TGNA. Benchmark boosted their target price on TEGNA from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of TEGNA from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th.

TEGNA Price Performance

Shares of TGNA stock opened at $18.94 on Friday. TEGNA has a one year low of $12.35 and a one year high of $19.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a current ratio of 2.60 and a quick ratio of 2.60. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.09. The firm has a market cap of $3.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.69 and a beta of 0.49.

TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.11. TEGNA had a return on equity of 14.49% and a net margin of 16.75%. The business had revenue of $806.83 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $795.72 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.39 EPS. TEGNA’s revenue was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that TEGNA will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TEGNA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.64%. TEGNA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.67%.

Insider Activity at TEGNA

In related news, COO Lynn B. Trelstad sold 25,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.40, for a total transaction of $410,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 154,617 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,535,718.80. The trade was a 13.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TEGNA

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TGNA. World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of TEGNA in the third quarter valued at about $528,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its stake in TEGNA by 7.4% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 17,994 shares of the company’s stock worth $284,000 after purchasing an additional 1,239 shares during the last quarter. Sculati Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in TEGNA by 11.6% in the third quarter. Sculati Wealth Management LLC now owns 51,435 shares of the company’s stock valued at $768,000 after buying an additional 5,330 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of TEGNA by 5.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,905,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,422,000 after purchasing an additional 238,696 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in shares of TEGNA by 29.6% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 14,495 shares of the company’s stock worth $229,000 after buying an additional 3,308 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.19% of the company’s stock.

About TEGNA

TEGNA Inc, a media company, provides broadcast advertising and marketing products and services for businesses. The company operates 47 television stations in 39 markets of the United States that produce local programming, such as news, sports, and entertainment. It offers local and national non-political advertising; political advertising; production of programming from third parties; production of advertising materials; and digital marketing services, as well as advertising services on the stations' Websites, tablets, and mobile products.