Brokerages Set E.W. Scripps Company (The) (NASDAQ:SSP) Price Target at $5.95

E.W. Scripps Company (The) (NASDAQ:SSP) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five ratings firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $5.95.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on SSP shares. Benchmark lowered their target price on shares of E.W. Scripps from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research raised shares of E.W. Scripps from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Guggenheim reaffirmed a “neutral” rating on shares of E.W. Scripps in a report on Friday, March 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of E.W. Scripps in a report on Friday, May 29th.

E.W. Scripps Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:SSP opened at $2.75 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $251.74 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.49 and a beta of 0.61. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $3.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.86. The company has a quick ratio of 1.58, a current ratio of 1.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.08. E.W. Scripps has a fifty-two week low of $2.02 and a fifty-two week high of $5.39.

E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.52) by $0.32. The business had revenue of $516.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $516.86 million. E.W. Scripps had a negative net margin of 4.63% and a negative return on equity of 0.56%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that E.W. Scripps will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at E.W. Scripps

In other E.W. Scripps news, major shareholder Molly E. Mccabe sold 11,239 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.29, for a total transaction of $36,976.31. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 266,493 shares in the company, valued at approximately $876,761.97. The trade was a 4.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 326,675 shares of company stock worth $1,117,887. 5.24% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On E.W. Scripps

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in SSP. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of E.W. Scripps by 8.6% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 316,113 shares of the company’s stock worth $936,000 after purchasing an additional 25,070 shares in the last quarter. Strs Ohio purchased a new stake in shares of E.W. Scripps during the 1st quarter worth $117,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of E.W. Scripps by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,516,298 shares of the company’s stock worth $4,459,000 after purchasing an additional 10,957 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its position in shares of E.W. Scripps by 111.4% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 49,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $146,000 after purchasing an additional 26,090 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of E.W. Scripps by 14.6% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 152,443 shares of the company’s stock worth $448,000 after purchasing an additional 19,393 shares in the last quarter. 67.81% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About E.W. Scripps

The E.W. Scripps Company is a diversified U.S. media organization headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Established in 1878 by Edward Willis Scripps, the company began as a newspaper publisher before expanding into broadcast television, cable networks and digital journalism. Today, Scripps combines a legacy of local news reporting with a growing portfolio of national cable channels and digital platforms.

Scripps operates more than 60 television stations across over 40 markets, delivering local news, weather, sports and entertainment programming to communities in both large and mid-sized U.S.