TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) Raises Dividend to $0.13 Per Share

TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 9th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.125 per share on Monday, July 1st. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 7th. This is a boost from TEGNA’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.11.

TEGNA has raised its dividend by an average of 14.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years. TEGNA has a dividend payout ratio of 22.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect TEGNA to earn $2.00 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.0%.

TEGNA Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TGNA opened at $15.03 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $2.65 billion, a PE ratio of 6.65 and a beta of 0.50. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $14.22 and its 200-day moving average is $14.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14, a quick ratio of 2.48 and a current ratio of 2.48. TEGNA has a 52 week low of $13.18 and a 52 week high of $17.37.

TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The company reported $0.45 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.43 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $714.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $718.86 million. TEGNA had a net margin of 16.38% and a return on equity of 12.41%. TEGNA’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.47 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that TEGNA will post 3.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO David T. Lougee sold 43,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $14.70, for a total transaction of $643,125.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 725,651 shares in the company, valued at $10,667,069.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on TGNA shares. Benchmark dropped their target price on shares of TEGNA from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of TEGNA from $17.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of TEGNA from $17.00 to $15.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 9th.

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.