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

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 8th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.08 per share on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th.

Gray Television has a dividend payout ratio of -59.3% indicating that the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect Gray Television to earn ($0.88) 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 -36.4%.

Gray Television Stock Down 4.1 %

Shares of GTN traded down $0.29 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $6.84. 224,088 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,125,336. Gray Television has a 52 week low of $5.44 and a 52 week high of $10.69. The company has a market cap of $664.88 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.13, a PEG ratio of 0.15 and a beta of 1.55. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $5.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $7.39. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.12.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.79 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $823.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $824.98 million. Gray Television had a negative return on equity of 3.76% and a negative net margin of 2.32%. Gray Television’s revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.48) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that Gray Television will post 4.21 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GTN has been the subject of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on Gray Television from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Benchmark upped their price objective on shares of Gray Television from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Barrington Research reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of Gray Television in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.40.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Hilton H. Howell, Jr. bought 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 28th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $8.09 per share, for a total transaction of $80,900.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,982,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,127,502.74. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 13.83% 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.