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

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 28th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th.

Gray Television has a payout ratio of 10.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Gray Television to earn ($0.28) 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 -114.3%.

Gray Television Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:GTN traded down $0.14 during trading on Friday, reaching $3.76. 4,225,578 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,351,156. The stock has a market capitalization of $374.25 million, a P/E ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.41. Gray Television has a 12 month low of $2.91 and a 12 month high of $7.41. The company has a 50 day moving average of $3.60 and a 200-day moving average of $4.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 1.13.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $1.59 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59. Gray Television had a return on equity of 9.60% and a net margin of 5.69%. The business had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.04 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that Gray Television will post 3.32 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on GTN. StockNews.com raised shares of Gray Television from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of Gray Television from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Barrington Research upgraded shares of Gray Television to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Benchmark reduced their price objective on Gray Television from $11.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, November 11th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Gray Television currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $6.67.

Insider Activity at Gray Television

In related news, EVP Kevin Paul Latek sold 150,216 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.37, for a total transaction of $656,443.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 509,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,225,256.44. The trade was a 22.78 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 4.80% of the stock is currently owned by 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.