TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) Short Interest Up 16.1% in February

TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 6,430,000 shares, an increase of 16.1% from the February 13th total of 5,540,000 shares. Approximately 4.1% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,420,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in shares of TEGNA by 80.2% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,683 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 749 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of TEGNA by 59.0% in the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,040 shares of the company’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 757 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of TEGNA by 95.6% in the fourth quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,702 shares of the company’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 832 shares during the last quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA lifted its holdings in shares of TEGNA by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Pictet Asset Management Holding SA now owns 23,193 shares of the company’s stock worth $424,000 after acquiring an additional 910 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TEGNA by 34.2% in the fourth quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,364 shares of the company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 1,111 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.19% of the company’s stock.

TEGNA Price Performance

TEGNA stock traded up $0.03 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $18.91. 103,423 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,825,091. The company has a market cap of $3.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.68 and a beta of 0.45. The company has a current ratio of 2.60, a quick ratio of 2.60 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. TEGNA has a twelve month low of $12.35 and a twelve month high of $19.62. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $17.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $17.29.

TEGNA Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be paid a dividend of $0.125 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 7th. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.64%. TEGNA’s payout ratio is 14.12%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TGNA has been the topic of several research reports. Guggenheim reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of TEGNA in a report on Friday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of TEGNA from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $23.00 in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of TEGNA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.75.

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.