Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Increases Holdings in The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ:SSP)

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its stake in The E.W. Scripps Company (NASDAQ:SSP) by 0.1% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,570,489 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 3,096 shares during the quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL’s holdings in E.W. Scripps were worth $33,598,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SNC grew its position in shares of E.W. Scripps by 117.2% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SNC now owns 41,140 shares of the company’s stock valued at $387,000 after purchasing an additional 22,199 shares in the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in E.W. Scripps by 11.0% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 62,675 shares of the company’s stock worth $590,000 after buying an additional 6,213 shares in the last quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. grew its position in E.W. Scripps by 0.8% during the first quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. now owns 236,432 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,225,000 after buying an additional 1,830 shares in the last quarter. HRT Financial LP purchased a new position in E.W. Scripps during the first quarter worth about $127,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in E.W. Scripps by 1.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,495,580 shares of the company’s stock worth $51,713,000 after buying an additional 55,163 shares in the last quarter. 66.30% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SSP has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com initiated coverage on E.W. Scripps in a research report on Sunday, August 20th. They set a “sell” rating for the company. Guggenheim boosted their target price on E.W. Scripps from $8.00 to $10.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 8th. Finally, Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $17.00 price target on shares of E.W. Scripps in a research note on Monday, August 7th.

E.W. Scripps Trading Down 0.7 %

SSP stock traded down $0.04 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $5.84. 26,466 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 308,564. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.88. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $9.10 and a 200 day moving average price of $8.79. The E.W. Scripps Company has a 12 month low of $5.41 and a 12 month high of $16.13.

E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 4th. The company reported ($0.09) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11) by $0.02. E.W. Scripps had a positive return on equity of 8.91% and a negative net margin of 23.16%. The company had revenue of $582.84 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $575.83 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. E.W. Scripps’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The E.W. Scripps Company will post 0.07 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Kate O’brian sold 5,144 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $9.44, for a total value of $48,559.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 840 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,929.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 3.62% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

E.W. Scripps Profile

The E.W. Scripps Company, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a media enterprise through a portfolio of local and national media brands. Its Local Media segment operates broadcast television stations, which produce news, information, and entertainment content, as well as its related digital operations.