Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $1.86

Nexstar Media Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:NXST) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, January 29th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 12th will be given a dividend of 1.86 per share on Wednesday, February 26th. This represents a $7.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.74%. This is an increase from Nexstar Media Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.69.

Nexstar Media Group has increased its dividend payment by an average of 34.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 11 years. Nexstar Media Group has a payout ratio of 25.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Nexstar Media Group to earn $17.69 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.76 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.2%.

Nexstar Media Group Price Performance

NASDAQ:NXST opened at $156.83 on Thursday. Nexstar Media Group has a one year low of $147.25 and a one year high of $191.86. The company has a market cap of $4.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 1.45. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $161.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $166.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.98, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 1.68.

Nexstar Media Group (NASDAQ:NXST) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 7th. The company reported $5.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $5.51 by ($0.24). The company had revenue of $1.37 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.37 billion. Nexstar Media Group had a net margin of 11.39% and a return on equity of 26.03%. Nexstar Media Group’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.70 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Nexstar Media Group will post 24.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Lee Ann Gliha sold 330 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $158.23, for a total value of $52,215.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 8,610 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,362,360.30. This represents a 3.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Perry A. Sook sold 52,808 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $157.41, for a total value of $8,312,507.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 674,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $106,203,582.54. This represents a 7.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 146,448 shares of company stock valued at $23,828,076. 6.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NXST. Barrington Research reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of Nexstar Media Group in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of Nexstar Media Group in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Loop Capital cut shares of Nexstar Media Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $200.00 to $190.00 in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Benchmark reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $215.00 price objective on shares of Nexstar Media Group in a research report on Friday, November 8th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Nexstar Media Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Nexstar Media Group currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $204.29.

Nexstar Media Group Company Profile

Nexstar Media Group, Inc operates as a diversified media company that produces and distributes engaging local and national news, sports and entertainment content across the television and digital platforms in the United States. It owns, operates, programs, or provides sales and other services to various markets; and offers television programming services.