World Investment Advisors LLC Acquires New Stake in TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA)

World Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm acquired 33,488 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $528,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of TGNA. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in TEGNA by 2,898.4% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 10,806,130 shares of the company’s stock valued at $170,521,000 after acquiring an additional 10,445,739 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management increased its position in TEGNA by 29.5% during the second quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 8,024,562 shares of the company’s stock valued at $111,862,000 after acquiring an additional 1,827,471 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in TEGNA by 395.9% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 930,722 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,974,000 after acquiring an additional 743,052 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC increased its position in TEGNA by 757.4% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 662,417 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,453,000 after acquiring an additional 585,156 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Squarepoint Ops LLC increased its position in TEGNA by 132.9% during the second quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC now owns 916,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,780,000 after acquiring an additional 523,120 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.19% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on TGNA shares. StockNews.com upgraded TEGNA from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on TEGNA from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. Finally, Benchmark upped their price target on TEGNA from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th.

TEGNA Stock Performance

Shares of TGNA opened at $18.11 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.60, a current ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.58 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.54. The stock has a market cap of $2.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.40 and a beta of 0.52. TEGNA Inc. has a 52 week low of $12.35 and a 52 week high of $19.62.

TEGNA (NYSE:TGNA) last issued 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 business had revenue of $806.83 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $795.72 million. TEGNA had a return on equity of 14.49% and a net margin of 16.75%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 13.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.39 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that TEGNA Inc. will post 3.02 EPS for the current year.

TEGNA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 6th will be paid a $0.125 dividend. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 6th. TEGNA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.67%.

Insider Transactions at TEGNA

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

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.