Insider Selling: E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) Major Shareholder Sells $381,765.60 in Stock

E.W. Scripps Company (The) (NASDAQ:SSP) major shareholder Molly Mccabe sold 112,284 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, May 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.40, for a total transaction of $381,765.60. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 11,239 shares in the company, valued at approximately $38,212.60. The trade was a 90.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Large shareholders that own more than 10% of a company’s shares are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.

E.W. Scripps Price Performance

SSP stock opened at $3.42 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $313.07 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.85 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.08, a current ratio of 1.58 and a quick ratio of 1.58. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $4.04 and a 200 day simple moving average of $3.90. E.W. Scripps Company has a 1 year low of $2.02 and a 1 year high of $5.39.

E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.52) by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $516.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $516.86 million. E.W. Scripps had a negative net margin of 4.63% and a negative return on equity of 0.56%. Research analysts anticipate that E.W. Scripps Company will post 0.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on SSP. Zacks Research raised E.W. Scripps from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of E.W. Scripps in a research note on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Benchmark cut their target price on shares of E.W. Scripps from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, E.W. Scripps has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.95.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On E.W. Scripps

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SSP. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in E.W. Scripps by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 246,777 shares of the company’s stock worth $985,000 after purchasing an additional 3,472 shares during the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. boosted its stake in shares of E.W. Scripps by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 182,344 shares of the company’s stock valued at $536,000 after purchasing an additional 4,342 shares during the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of E.W. Scripps by 18.2% during the fourth quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC now owns 31,297 shares of the company’s stock worth $125,000 after buying an additional 4,819 shares during the period. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC raised its stake in E.W. Scripps by 23.8% during the first quarter. Chicago Partners Investment Group LLC now owns 26,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,000 after buying an additional 5,020 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Diversified Trust Co. lifted its holdings in E.W. Scripps by 25.8% in the fourth quarter. Diversified Trust Co. now owns 24,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $99,000 after buying an additional 5,101 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.81% of the company’s stock.

About E.W. Scripps

The E.W. Scripps Company is a diversified U.S. media organization headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Established in 1878 by Edward Willis Scripps, the company began as a newspaper publisher before expanding into broadcast television, cable networks and digital journalism. Today, Scripps combines a legacy of local news reporting with a growing portfolio of national cable channels and digital platforms.

Scripps operates more than 60 television stations across over 40 markets, delivering local news, weather, sports and entertainment programming to communities in both large and mid-sized U.S.