TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) Share Price Passes Above 50 Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA)’s share price passed above its 50 day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a 50 day moving average of $18.30 and traded as high as $18.30. TEGNA shares last traded at $18.25, with a volume of 1,887,151 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised TEGNA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $21.00 to $23.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 19th. Benchmark boosted their price objective on TEGNA from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. StockNews.com raised TEGNA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on TEGNA from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th.

TEGNA Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.34 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.09. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.88 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.31 and a beta of 0.52.

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

TEGNA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.80%. TEGNA’s payout ratio is presently 17.67%.

Insider Transactions at TEGNA

In related news, COO Lynn B. Trelstad sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.40, for a total value of $410,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 154,617 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,535,718.80. This represents a 13.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TEGNA

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TGNA. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in TEGNA by 2,898.4% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 10,806,130 shares of the company’s stock valued at $170,521,000 after acquiring an additional 10,445,739 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in TEGNA by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,309,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,714,000 after acquiring an additional 141,638 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in TEGNA by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,194,619 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,991,000 after acquiring an additional 276,699 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in TEGNA by 5.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,905,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,422,000 after acquiring an additional 238,696 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in TEGNA by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,779,273 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,077,000 after acquiring an additional 53,583 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.