TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.02 EPS

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

TEGNA Price Performance

Shares of TEGNA stock traded up $0.10 during trading on Thursday, hitting $14.78. 785,917 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,119,944. TEGNA has a twelve month low of $13.18 and a twelve month high of $17.37. The company has a market cap of $2.60 billion, a PE ratio of 6.53 and a beta of 0.50. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $14.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a current ratio of 2.48 and a quick ratio of 2.48.

TEGNA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 8th were given a dividend of $0.114 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 7th. This represents a $0.46 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.09%. TEGNA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 19.91%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TGNA has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on TEGNA from $17.00 to $15.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on TEGNA from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Benchmark lowered their price target on shares of TEGNA from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st.

Insider Activity at TEGNA

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

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.