E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) Major Shareholder Sells $201,609.70 in Stock

E.W. Scripps Company (The) (NASDAQ:SSP) major shareholder Molly Mccabe sold 60,182 shares of E.W. Scripps stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.35, for a total transaction of $201,609.70. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 266,493 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $892,751.55. This represents a 18.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Large shareholders that own at least 10% of a company’s stock are required to disclose their transactions with the SEC.

E.W. Scripps Stock Performance

E.W. Scripps stock traded down $0.07 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $3.42. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 377,457 shares, compared to its average volume of 706,318. E.W. Scripps Company has a 12-month low of $2.02 and a 12-month high of $5.39. The company has a market capitalization of $313.07 million, a P/E ratio of -1.85 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.08, a quick ratio of 1.58 and a current ratio of 1.58. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $4.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.89.

E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.52) by $0.32. E.W. Scripps had a negative net margin of 4.63% and a negative return on equity of 0.56%. The business had revenue of $516.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $516.86 million. Sell-side analysts predict that E.W. Scripps Company will post 0.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of E.W. Scripps

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in SSP. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its holdings in shares of E.W. Scripps by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 316,113 shares of the company’s stock worth $936,000 after acquiring an additional 25,070 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio bought a new stake in shares of E.W. Scripps during the 1st quarter worth $117,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of E.W. Scripps by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,516,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,459,000 after acquiring an additional 10,957 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of E.W. Scripps by 111.4% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 49,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $146,000 after acquiring an additional 26,090 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of E.W. Scripps by 14.6% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 152,443 shares of the company’s stock worth $448,000 after acquiring an additional 19,393 shares during the last quarter. 67.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on SSP. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of E.W. Scripps from $3.00 to $3.90 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Benchmark cut their price target on shares of E.W. Scripps from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, May 11th. Guggenheim reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of E.W. Scripps in a report on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of E.W. Scripps from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, E.W. Scripps presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $5.95.

E.W. Scripps Company Profile

The E.W. Scripps Company is a diversified U.S. media organization headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Established in 1878 by Edward Willis Scripps, the company began as a newspaper publisher before expanding into broadcast television, cable networks and digital journalism. Today, Scripps combines a legacy of local news reporting with a growing portfolio of national cable channels and digital platforms.

Scripps operates more than 60 television stations across over 40 markets, delivering local news, weather, sports and entertainment programming to communities in both large and mid-sized U.S.