TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) Short Interest Update

TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,370,000 shares, a decrease of 14.4% from the May 31st total of 12,120,000 shares. Approximately 6.2% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 2,000,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.2 days.

Insider Activity at TEGNA

In related news, SVP Clifton A. Mcclelland III sold 54,093 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.78, for a total value of $853,587.54. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 42,602 shares in the company, valued at $672,259.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other TEGNA news, SVP Clifton A. Mcclelland III sold 54,093 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $15.78, for a total value of $853,587.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 42,602 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $672,259.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO David T. Lougee sold 32,813 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.04, for a total value of $493,507.52. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 692,838 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,420,283.52. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 155,656 shares of company stock worth $2,339,970. 0.88% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of TEGNA

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of TGNA. UBS Group AG raised its stake in TEGNA by 135.0% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 189,443 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,760,000 after buying an additional 108,825 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in TEGNA by 26.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 526,467 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,671,000 after buying an additional 111,208 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC bought a new position in shares of TEGNA during the third quarter worth approximately $717,000. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new position in shares of TEGNA during the third quarter worth approximately $311,000. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC increased its stake in shares of TEGNA by 7.0% during the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 22,348 shares of the company’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 1,464 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.19% of the company’s stock.

TEGNA Stock Performance

TGNA opened at $13.94 on Friday. TEGNA has a 52-week low of $12.35 and a 52-week high of $17.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.36 billion, a PE ratio of 4.87 and a beta of 0.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a quick ratio of 2.53 and a current ratio of 2.53. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is $14.56.

TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.02. TEGNA had a return on equity of 11.86% and a net margin of 19.48%. The business had revenue of $714.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $718.86 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.47 earnings per share. TEGNA’s revenue was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that TEGNA will post 3.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TEGNA Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a $0.125 dividend. This is a positive change from TEGNA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.59%. TEGNA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 17.48%.

About TEGNA

TEGNA Inc, a media company, provides broadcast advertising and marketing products and services for businesses. The company operates 47 television stations in 39 markets of the United States that produce local programming, such as news, sports, and entertainment. It offers local and national non-political advertising; political advertising; production of programming from third parties; production of advertising materials; and digital marketing services, as well as advertising services on the stations' Websites, tablets, and mobile products.