TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.13

TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 20th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a dividend of 0.125 per share on Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th.

TEGNA has increased its dividend by an average of 14.2% per year over the last three years. TEGNA has a dividend payout ratio of 25.9% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect TEGNA to earn $1.68 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 29.8%.

TEGNA Trading Up 1.3 %

NYSE:TGNA traded up $0.23 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $18.11. The company had a trading volume of 1,051,472 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,236,471. TEGNA has a fifty-two week low of $12.35 and a fifty-two week high of $19.62. The business’s fifty day moving average is $16.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.01. 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 has a market cap of $2.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.32 and a beta of 0.49.

TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $0.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $806.83 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $795.72 million. TEGNA had a return on equity of 14.49% and a net margin of 16.75%. TEGNA’s revenue was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.39 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that TEGNA will post 3.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on TGNA. StockNews.com raised TEGNA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 15th. Benchmark increased their price target on TEGNA from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on TEGNA from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other TEGNA news, COO Lynn B. Trelstad sold 25,000 shares of TEGNA stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.40, for a total transaction of $410,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 154,617 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,535,718.80. The trade was a 13.92 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.88% of the company’s stock.

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.