Short Interest in Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) Decreases By 8.7%

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) saw a significant decline in short interest in July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,210,000 shares, a decline of 8.7% from the June 30th total of 6,800,000 shares. Approximately 7.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 1,350,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.6 days.

Gray Television Trading Down 5.4 %

GTN stock traded down $0.35 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $6.08. The stock had a trading volume of 1,002,169 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,245,922. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $5.47 and its 200 day moving average price is $6.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 1.42. The firm has a market cap of $602.77 million, a PE ratio of -50.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.13 and a beta of 1.52. Gray Television has a 12-month low of $4.39 and a 12-month high of $10.69.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The company reported $0.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.25. Gray Television had a return on equity of 2.13% and a net margin of 1.30%. The firm had revenue of $823.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $824.98 million. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.48) EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts predict that Gray Television will post 5.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gray Television Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Friday, June 14th were given a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Gray Television’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -266.67%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gray Television

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GTN. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Gray Television by 9.8% in 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 in the last quarter. Capital Management Corp VA lifted its position in Gray Television by 18.6% during the first quarter. Capital Management Corp VA now owns 3,670,410 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,197,000 after buying an additional 575,527 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in Gray Television by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,221,487 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,905,000 after buying an additional 160,500 shares during the period. Tributary Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Gray Television by 0.8% in the second quarter. Tributary Capital Management LLC now owns 1,334,714 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,941,000 after acquiring an additional 10,093 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Gray Television by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 1,307,308 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,262,000 after acquiring an additional 23,878 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.64% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on GTN. Loop Capital upgraded shares of Gray Television to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Benchmark lifted their price objective on Gray Television from $11.00 to $13.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Gray Television from $5.50 to $6.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $11.40.

About Gray Television

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.