Short Interest in Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) Rises By 26.2%

Gray Television, Inc. (NYSE:GTN) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 6,690,000 shares, an increase of 26.2% from the March 15th total of 5,300,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,200,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.6 days. Currently, 8.2% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Insider Activity at Gray Television

In other news, CEO Hilton H. Howell, Jr. bought 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 28th. The stock was bought at an average price of $8.09 per share, for a total transaction of $80,900.00. Following the purchase, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,982,386 shares in the company, valued at approximately $24,127,502.74. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 4.80% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gray Television

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Gray Television by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,156,292 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,200,000 after buying an additional 247,112 shares during the period. Readystate Asset Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Gray Television by 61.9% during the 4th quarter. Readystate Asset Management LP now owns 85,822 shares of the company’s stock valued at $769,000 after purchasing an additional 32,822 shares in the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its position in shares of Gray Television by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 123,185 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,104,000 after purchasing an additional 9,171 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its holdings in shares of Gray Television by 7.6% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 88,337 shares of the company’s stock valued at $792,000 after purchasing an additional 6,277 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GSA Capital Partners LLP raised its position in Gray Television by 107.9% during the fourth quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP now owns 44,310 shares of the company’s stock worth $397,000 after acquiring an additional 22,994 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 78.64% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GTN has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on Gray Television from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. Barrington Research restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Gray Television in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.80.

Gray Television Stock Up 1.8 %

Gray Television stock traded up $0.10 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $5.66. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 939,991 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,169,939. The company has a market cap of $550.17 million, a PE ratio of -4.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.15 and a beta of 1.57. Gray Television has a 52-week low of $5.44 and a 52-week high of $10.69. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.12, a current ratio of 1.18 and a quick ratio of 1.18. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $6.53 and its 200 day moving average is $7.45.

Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 23rd. The company reported ($0.24) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.16) by ($0.08). The business had revenue of $864.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $863.31 million. Gray Television had a negative return on equity of 3.76% and a negative net margin of 2.32%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 19.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.88 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Gray Television will post 3.78 earnings per share for the current year.

Gray Television Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.08 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.65%. Gray Television’s dividend payout ratio is currently -23.02%.

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.