Graham (NYSE:GHC) Stock Rating Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Graham (NYSE:GHC) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Separately, Weiss Ratings raised shares of Graham from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a report on Friday, September 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and one has given a Buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Strong Buy”.

Graham Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GHC opened at $1,166.61 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.25 and a beta of 0.70. Graham has a 12 month low of $990.09 and a 12 month high of $1,262.34. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $1,161.70 and its 200-day simple moving average is $1,136.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 1.86 and a quick ratio of 1.59.

Graham (NYSE:GHC) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The company reported $18.77 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $18.36 by $0.41. Graham had a net margin of 9.66% and a return on equity of 6.02%. The firm had revenue of $1.33 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.33 billion.

Graham Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, November 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 15th will be given a $1.88 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 15th. This represents a $7.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. Graham’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 6.61%.

Institutional Trading of Graham

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GHC. Root Financial Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Graham in the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of Graham by 65.0% in the second quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 33 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,000 after acquiring an additional 13 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Graham by 36.4% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 45 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 12 shares during the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Graham during the second quarter worth approximately $60,000. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Graham by 533.3% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 57 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 48 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.16% of the company’s stock.

Graham Company Profile

Graham Holdings Company is a diversified American holding company formerly known as The Washington Post Company. The company changed its name in 2013 after the sale of the newspaper publishing business to Jeff Bezos. Today, Graham Holdings operates a portfolio of businesses across education, media, healthcare, automotive, manufacturing and other industries.

Its largest business is Kaplan, a provider of educational services, professional training and test preparation. Graham Holdings also owns Graham Media Group, which operates local television stations in several U.S.