Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) Short Interest Update

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in October. As of October 31st, there was short interest totalling 4,190,000 shares, a decline of 7.9% from the October 15th total of 4,550,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.4 days. Currently, 5.0% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gray Television

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Gray Television by 9.8% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,662,398 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,786,000 after purchasing an additional 506,106 shares during the last quarter. Capital Management Corp VA boosted its holdings in Gray Television by 27.6% during the 3rd quarter. Capital Management Corp VA now owns 5,408,269 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,988,000 after acquiring an additional 1,170,990 shares during the period. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Gray Television by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 2,009,896 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,773,000 after acquiring an additional 36,541 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Gray Television by 3.0% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,971,374 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,568,000 after acquiring an additional 57,481 shares during the period. Finally, Tributary Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Gray Television by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 1,334,714 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,941,000 after acquiring an additional 10,093 shares during the period. 78.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on GTN. StockNews.com upgraded Gray Television from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Benchmark decreased their price objective on Gray Television from $11.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 11th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on Gray Television from $6.00 to $4.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 9th. Barrington Research upgraded Gray Television to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Guggenheim decreased their price objective on Gray Television from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6.67.

Gray Television Stock Performance

GTN stock traded down $0.24 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $4.45. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 880,452 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,274,982. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $5.27 and its 200 day moving average price is $5.40. The company has a quick ratio of 1.63, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.76. Gray Television has a 1 year low of $3.95 and a 1 year high of $10.07. The stock has a market cap of $443.52 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 2.97, a PEG ratio of 0.13 and a beta of 1.47.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by ($0.08). Gray Television had a net margin of 5.69% and a return on equity of 9.60%. The company had revenue of $950.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $967.49 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.57) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Gray Television will post 2.7 EPS for the current year.

Gray Television Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.19%. Gray Television’s payout ratio is 21.33%.

Gray Television Company Profile

Gray Television, Inc, a television broadcasting company, owns and/or operates television stations and digital assets in the United States. It also broadcasts secondary digital channels affiliated to ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX, as well as various other networks and program services, including CW Plus Network, MY Network, the MeTV Network, Circle, Telemundo, THE365, and Outlaw; and local news/weather channels in various markets.