Wall Street Zen Upgrades E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) to Hold

E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on SSP. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of E.W. Scripps in a research note on Wednesday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on E.W. Scripps from $4.70 to $3.80 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, E.W. Scripps currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.90.

E.W. Scripps Price Performance

NASDAQ SSP opened at $3.02 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.08, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $279.86 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -0.22 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $3.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $3.51. E.W. Scripps has a 52-week low of $2.02 and a 52-week high of $5.39.

E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported ($0.34) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.53) by $0.19. E.W. Scripps had a negative net margin of 58.02% and a negative return on equity of 4.58%. The firm had revenue of $490.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $511.65 million.

Institutional Trading of E.W. Scripps

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of E.W. Scripps by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,729,155 shares of the company’s stock worth $13,873,000 after purchasing an additional 57,441 shares during the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its stake in shares of E.W. Scripps by 9.0% in the 1st quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 2,661,878 shares of the company’s stock valued at $9,902,000 after purchasing an additional 219,839 shares during the last quarter. Wittenberg Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in E.W. Scripps by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. Wittenberg Investment Management Inc. now owns 2,310,061 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,217,000 after purchasing an additional 93,112 shares in the last quarter. Lee Danner & Bass Inc. bought a new stake in E.W. Scripps in the first quarter worth $5,273,000. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC increased its position in E.W. Scripps by 23.2% during the first quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 1,375,524 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,117,000 after buying an additional 258,908 shares during the last quarter. 67.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About E.W. Scripps

The E.W. Scripps Company is a diversified media company that operates local television stations and national broadcast and digital media networks. Its local media business provides news, weather, sports and community programming through television stations serving markets across the United States, along with related digital platforms.

Scripps’ national portfolio includes Scripps News, a 24-hour news service, and entertainment and specialty networks such as ION, Bounce, Court TV, Grit and ION Mystery.