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

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) posted its earnings results on Tuesday. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.25, Briefing.com reports. The company had revenue of $823.00 million during 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.48) EPS.

Gray Television Price Performance

Shares of GTN stock traded up $0.08 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $6.78. The company had a trading volume of 748,619 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,126,636. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.12, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a current ratio of 1.18. Gray Television has a one year low of $5.44 and a one year high of $10.69. The firm has a market capitalization of $659.02 million, a P/E ratio of -4.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.15 and a beta of 1.55. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $5.91 and its 200 day moving average price is $7.39.

Gray Television Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.72%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Gray Television’s dividend payout ratio is -23.02%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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 dated Thursday, March 28th. The stock was bought at an average price of $8.09 per share, with a total value of $80,900.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the chief executive officer now owns 2,982,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,127,502.74. The acquisition was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 13.83% of the company’s stock.

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.