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

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 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. 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 GTN stock traded down $0.14 on Friday, reaching $3.76. 4,248,608 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,352,919. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $3.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $4.43. 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 has a twelve month low of $2.91 and a twelve month high of $7.41.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $1.59 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.59. The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.04 billion. Gray Television had a net margin of 5.69% and a return on equity of 9.60%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Gray Television will post 3.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Benchmark reduced 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. StockNews.com raised shares of Gray Television from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Barrington Research raised shares of Gray Television to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 14th. Finally, Guggenheim cut their price target on shares of Gray Television from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $6.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Gray Television news, EVP Kevin Paul Latek sold 150,216 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.37, for a total transaction of $656,443.92. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 509,212 shares in the company, 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 filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 4.80% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.