Tegna expands its TV audiences

Article Excerpt

TEGNA INC. $15 (New York symbol TGNA, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector: Shares o/s: 216.4 million; Market cap: $3.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.5; Divd. yield: 1.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tegna.com) owns 49 TV stations and two radio stations in 41 markets. It also offers online advertising and marketing services. The company has now agreed to acquire 100% ownership of two speciality TV networks; it currently holds just a 15% stake. The first, Justice Network, features true-crime, mystery and investigation programs. Quest, on the other hand, features science, history, engineering and adventure-reality series. Together, the two networks reach more than 87 million U.S. homes. Tegna will pay $77 million when it completes the purchase in the next few weeks. To put that figure in context, it earned $62.4 million, or $0.29 a share, in the quarter ended March 31, 2019. Tegna is a buy. buy…