Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Buys 302,160 Shares of Sinclair, Inc. $SBGI

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL raised its stake in Sinclair, Inc. (NASDAQ:SBGI) by 7.7% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,242,962 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 302,160 shares during the quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL owned about 0.06% of Sinclair worth $64,069,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its position in Sinclair by 142.0% during the second quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 1,815 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 1,065 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its stake in Sinclair by 175.6% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,954 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 1,882 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in shares of Sinclair in the 2nd quarter valued at about $54,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of Sinclair by 26.2% in the 2nd quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 3,945 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 820 shares during the period. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Sinclair by 79.3% during the 2nd quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 6,773 shares of the company’s stock worth $94,000 after purchasing an additional 2,996 shares during the last quarter. 41.71% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on SBGI. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Sinclair from $16.00 to $17.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 26th. Weiss Ratings cut Sinclair from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Monday. Wall Street Zen raised Sinclair from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, February 22nd. Guggenheim upped their price objective on Sinclair from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 13th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Sinclair from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 13th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.00.

Sinclair Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ SBGI opened at $15.60 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 11.78, a current ratio of 2.42 and a quick ratio of 2.01. The firm has a market cap of $1.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.29 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $14.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.74. Sinclair, Inc. has a one year low of $11.89 and a one year high of $17.88.

Sinclair (NASDAQ:SBGI) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.03) by $0.07. Sinclair had a negative net margin of 3.53% and a negative return on equity of 64.27%. The company had revenue of $836.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $840.25 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.61 earnings per share. Sinclair’s quarterly revenue was down 16.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts forecast that Sinclair, Inc. will post 4.24 EPS for the current year.

Sinclair Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 24th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.4%. Sinclair’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -59.52%.

Insider Transactions at Sinclair

In other news, EVP David B. Gibber sold 29,376 shares of Sinclair stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.67, for a total value of $489,697.92. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 165,272 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,755,084.24. The trade was a 15.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Benson E. Legg sold 6,548 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.81, for a total value of $103,523.88. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 71,165 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,125,118.65. This trade represents a 8.43% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 50,637 shares of company stock valued at $815,535. 41.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Sinclair Company Profile

Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc (NASDAQ: SBGI) is a media and entertainment company headquartered in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Founded in 1971 as a single UHF television station operator, Sinclair has grown through strategic acquisitions and organic expansion to become one of the largest owners of local television stations in the United States. Over its history, the company has pursued a diversified portfolio that includes both traditional broadcast assets and newer digital platforms.

At its core, Sinclair operates over 190 television stations affiliated with the major national broadcast networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, The CW and MyNetworkTV.