Insider Selling: TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) COO Sells $347,000.00 in Stock

TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) COO Lynn B. Trelstad sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.88, for a total transaction of $347,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 179,617 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,493,083.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link.

TEGNA Stock Performance

TGNA stock opened at $15.14 on Thursday. TEGNA Inc. has a 52 week low of $12.35 and a 52 week high of $16.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 2.58 and a current ratio of 2.58. The stock has a market cap of $2.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.29 and a beta of 0.49. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.31.

TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.02. TEGNA had a net margin of 15.51% and a return on equity of 11.57%. The company had revenue of $710.36 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $715.40 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.44 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.9% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that TEGNA Inc. will post 3.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TEGNA Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 6th will be given a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 6th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.30%. TEGNA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.48%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $21.00 target price on shares of TEGNA in a research report on Thursday, August 8th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TEGNA

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of TEGNA in the fourth quarter valued at $38,009,000. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in shares of TEGNA by 29.5% during the 2nd quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 8,024,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,862,000 after purchasing an additional 1,827,471 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of TEGNA by 5.8% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,798,623 shares of the company’s stock valued at $400,371,000 after buying an additional 1,471,691 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC increased its holdings in TEGNA by 395.9% during the 2nd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 930,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,974,000 after purchasing an additional 743,052 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC lifted its stake in TEGNA by 132.9% in the 2nd quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 916,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,780,000 after acquiring an additional 523,120 shares in 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.