Gray Television, Inc. (GTN) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.08 on March 31st

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.08 per share on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th.

Gray Television has a dividend payout ratio of 10.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Down 3.5 %

Shares of NYSE:GTN opened at $3.76 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $3.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4.43. Gray Television has a 52-week low of $2.91 and a 52-week high of $7.41. The company has a quick ratio of 1.13, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76. The company has a market capitalization of $374.25 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.50 and a beta of 1.41.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $1.59 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59. The business had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. Gray Television had a net margin of 5.69% and a return on equity of 9.60%. As a group, analysts forecast that Gray Television will post 3.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Gray Television news, EVP Kevin Paul Latek sold 150,216 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.37, for a total transaction of $656,443.92. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 509,212 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,225,256.44. This represents 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 company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

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.