Tegna plans big share buyback

Article Excerpt

TEGNA INC. $13 (New York symbol TGNA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector: Shares o/s: 215.1 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Divd. yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tegna.com) owns 46 TV stations. It also offers online services, including Premion (advertising) and G/O Digital (web design). The company’s revenue in the second quarter of 2017 rose 2.6%, to $489.4 million from $477.0 million a year earlier. Due to higher costs for programming, earnings fell 17.1%, to $0.29 a share from $0.35. As part of Tegna’s plan to focus on its main broadcasting operations, the company recently reduced its stake in the CareerBuilder job search website, from 53% to 17%. It received $250 million. The cash will help fund Tegna’s plan to buy back $300 million of its shares over the next three years. The company also expects next year’s Winter Olympics and the U.S. midterm elections to bolster its advertising revenue for 2018. Tegna is a buy. buy…