TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) Given Buy Rating at Guggenheim

Guggenheim restated their buy rating on shares of TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. Guggenheim currently has a $22.00 price target on the stock.

Several other research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded TEGNA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $23.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of TEGNA from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. StockNews.com upgraded TEGNA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Benchmark raised their target price on TEGNA from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, TEGNA currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.75.

TEGNA Price Performance

NYSE TGNA opened at $18.23 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.94 billion, a PE ratio of 6.44 and a beta of 0.52. TEGNA has a 52-week low of $12.35 and a 52-week high of $19.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a current ratio of 2.60. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $18.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.45.

TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.94 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.83 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $806.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $795.72 million. TEGNA had a net margin of 16.75% and a return on equity of 14.49%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.39 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that TEGNA will post 3.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TEGNA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th were paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 6th. This represents a $0.50 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.74%. TEGNA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 17.67%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TEGNA

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in TEGNA by 2,898.4% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 10,806,130 shares of the company’s stock valued at $170,521,000 after buying an additional 10,445,739 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in TEGNA by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 8,194,619 shares of the company’s stock worth $129,991,000 after acquiring an additional 276,699 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in TEGNA by 5.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,905,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $77,422,000 after acquiring an additional 238,696 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of TEGNA by 3.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,779,273 shares of the company’s stock worth $28,077,000 after purchasing an additional 53,583 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its position in shares of TEGNA by 395.9% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 930,722 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,974,000 after purchasing an additional 743,052 shares in the last quarter. 92.19% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TEGNA Company Profile

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.