Latest from Next TV in Dividend

Tegna Boosts Dividend 30% to 38 Cents a Share Annually

jon.lafayette@futurenet.com (Jon Lafayette) — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 21:17:02 +0000

Tegna said its board approved raising its quarterly dividend by 2.5 cents per quarter, or about 30%.

The first quarterly dividend at the new rate of of 9.5 cents per share will be payable on July 1 to stockholders of record at the close on June 4.

Tegna has been under pressure from investor Standard General, which is seeking seats on the Tegna board after losing a proxy contest. One of Standard General’s nominees was former FCC official and top ad association executive Adonis Hoffman-who figures in a recent Tegna controversy.

Hoffman, who is Black, withdrew his nomination, citing possible conflicts with clients -- he is currently a consultant -- and an incident in 2014 when David Lougee, then Tegna’s president, mistook him for a valet. Lougee is now CEO.

Lougee apologized for the incident

“Our announcement today reflects our Board’s commitment to actively reviewing all options to create value for our shareholders, the continued execution of our long-term strategy, and the confidence in our continued strong performance and growth, which combined, led to our decision to increase our annual dividend,” said Howard D. Elias, chairman of Tegna's board.

Lougee said Tegna was reiterating its financial guidance for the first quarter and for all of 2021. He said first-quarter revenue is expected to be at the high end of what the company expects.

The revenue growth includes advertising and marketing services growth in the high single digits for the quarter and full-year growth in the mid- to high teens for subscription revenue following new distribution agreements being signed at the end of 2020 covering about 35% of the company’s pay TV viewers.

“The strength of our business, improved durability of our cash flows, and continued commitment to prudent expense management drove the decision to increase our quarterly dividend, which will result in a significant increase from our previous dividend payment,” Lougee said.

Frontier Shares Decline on Dividend Fears

Mike Farrell — Thu, 23 Mar 2017 21:50:00 +0000

Frontier Communications shares continued to decline for a second day after a Goldman Sachs analyst cut his rating on the stock to “sell” on fears the telecom and cable company might have to drastically pare its dividend.

Goldman Sachs analyst Brett Feldman lowered his rating on Frontier to sell on Wednesday, adding in a research note that he believed the company would have to suspend its dividend after the first quarter to help it meet what he called “significant debt maturities” in 2020 and 2022.

Frontier stock fell 10.6% (25 cents each) to $2.11 per share on Wednesday after the Goldman report. On Thursday, the stock continued to sag, dropping 8% (17 cents each) to $1.95 per share, an all-time low.

It’s been a rough past 12 months for Frontier, which paid about $10.5 billion for Verizon Communications’ Fios properties in California, Texas and Florida last year. The stock has fallen from about $5 per share one year ago.

Frontier said back in February that its board had declared a quarterly cash dividend of 10.5 cents per share payable on March 31 to shareholders of record as of March 15. Some analysts have cautioned that although Frontier has sufficient free cash flow to cover the dividend – free cash flow was $921 million in 2016 vs. a dividend payout of $475 million – as the stick price dips it could be harder to cover.

At $1.95 per share, the dividend yield is 22%, a high rate that usually denotes a price cut is in the cards.

According to reports, the Frontier downgrade is just the latest in what has been a string of bad news for the company. It's planning, at its May annual meeting, to seek shareholder approval for a possible reverse stock split. The Connecticut-based telco also was replacee in the S&P 500 Index by Raymond James Associates, after Frontier could not meet the popular index’s market cap requirements.

Scripps Sets $1 Billion Stock Repurchase Plan

MCN Staff — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 20:30:00 +0000

Scripps Networks Interactive plans to spend $1 billion to repurchase its own share.

The lifestyle programmer is also raising its dividend by 15%, to 23 cents psr share to holders of record on March 2.

.Before the new $1 billion stock buyback program was authorized, Scripps had $448 million remaining on its previous repurchase plan.

Last quarter, the company announced a restructuring and reduced its workforce by 5% to be more efficient in its mission of creating lifestyle content. .