TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $714.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $718.86 million. TEGNA had a net margin of 16.38% and a return on equity of 12.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share.

TEGNA Price Performance

Shares of TGNA stock traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $14.76. 556,707 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,117,916. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $14.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $14.83. TEGNA has a fifty-two week low of $13.18 and a fifty-two week high of $17.37. The firm has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.50 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.48, a current ratio of 2.48 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14.

TEGNA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Friday, March 8th were issued a $0.114 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $0.46 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.09%. TEGNA’s payout ratio is 19.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other TEGNA news, CEO David T. Lougee sold 43,750 shares of TEGNA stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.70, for a total transaction of $643,125.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 725,651 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,667,069.70. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on TGNA. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of TEGNA from $17.00 to $15.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on TEGNA from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Benchmark decreased their target price on TEGNA from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 1st.

TEGNA Company Profile

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.