Election ads spur Tegna gains

Article Excerpt

TEGNA INC. $26 (New York symbol TGNA; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector: Shares outstanding: 214.8 million; Market cap: $5.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 2.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tegna.com) gets 60% of its revenue and 80% of its earnings from its 46 TV stations. The remaining 40% of revenue and 20% of earnings come from its websites, including Cars. com (car sales and vehicle information), CareerBuilder (job search) and G/O Digital (website design). In the fourth quarter of 2016, Tegna’s revenue rose 10.2%, to $887.4 million from $805.3 million a year earlier. That’s largely due to strong demand for TV ads during last year’s presidential election. Earnings jumped 39.6%, to $0.74 from $0.53. Tegna now wants to focus on its main media operations. As a result, it plans to spin off Cars.com as a separate firm in 2017. It may also sell its 53%-owned CareerBuilder business. Tegna is a buy. buy…