Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) Receives $8.33 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has issued a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $8.33.

A number of research firms have weighed in on GTN. Guggenheim decreased their target price on shares of Gray Television from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Gray Television from $6.00 to $4.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Finally, Benchmark reduced their price target on shares of Gray Television from $13.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 9th.

Gray Television Trading Up 2.0 %

GTN opened at $5.55 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 1.63 and a quick ratio of 1.63. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $5.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $5.47. Gray Television has a 1-year low of $4.15 and a 1-year high of $10.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $550.22 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -46.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.12 and a beta of 1.49.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by ($0.01). Gray Television had a return on equity of 3.02% and a net margin of 1.84%. The business had revenue of $826.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $840.33 million. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.10) earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Gray Television will post 4.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gray Television Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 13th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Gray Television’s payout ratio is presently -266.67%.

Institutional Trading of Gray Television

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Gray Television by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,662,398 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,786,000 after buying an additional 506,106 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new stake in Gray Television in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,010,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its position in Gray Television by 168.1% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 67,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $424,000 after purchasing an additional 42,075 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its position in Gray Television by 3.2% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 212,937 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,346,000 after purchasing an additional 6,652 shares during the period. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC raised its position in Gray Television by 454.2% in the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 142,541 shares of the company’s stock valued at $741,000 after purchasing an additional 116,821 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 78.64% of the company’s stock.

About Gray Television

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.