Key Points
- Molly Mccabe, a major shareholder of E.W. Scripps, sold 112,284 shares on May 19 at an average price of $3.40, cutting her stake by about 90.9%.
- E.W. Scripps stock was down about 2% and recently traded near $3.42, well below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, with a market cap of roughly $313 million.
- The company recently beat earnings expectations for the quarter, reporting an EPS loss of ($0.20) versus the expected ($0.52), while analysts currently rate the stock a consensus “Hold” with an average target price of $5.95.
E.W. Scripps Company (The) (NASDAQ:SSP - Get Free Report) major shareholder Molly Mccabe sold 11,239 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $3.29, for a total value of $36,976.31. Following the transaction, the insider owned 266,493 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $876,761.97. The trade was a 4.05% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Large shareholders that own more than 10% of a company's shares are required to disclose their sales and purchases with the SEC.
E.W. Scripps Trading Down 2.0%
Shares of E.W. Scripps stock opened at $3.42 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $313.07 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.85 and a beta of 0.72. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $4.04 and a 200-day moving average price of $3.89. 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 Company has a twelve month low of $2.02 and a twelve month high of $5.39.
E.W. Scripps (NASDAQ:SSP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.52) by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $516.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $516.86 million. E.W. Scripps had a negative return on equity of 0.56% and a negative net margin of 4.63%. Equities research analysts anticipate that E.W. Scripps Company will post 0.22 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of E.W. Scripps by 22.6% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,722,317 shares of the company's stock worth $18,842,000 after buying an additional 871,159 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of E.W. Scripps by 1.6% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,729,155 shares of the company's stock worth $13,873,000 after buying an additional 57,441 shares during the period. Penn Capital Management Company LLC raised its holdings in shares of E.W. Scripps by 151.7% in the third quarter. Penn Capital Management Company LLC now owns 3,599,606 shares of the company's stock worth $8,864,000 after buying an additional 2,169,640 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL raised its holdings in shares of E.W. Scripps by 9.0% in the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 2,661,878 shares of the company's stock worth $9,902,000 after buying an additional 219,839 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in shares of E.W. Scripps by 142.3% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 2,318,987 shares of the company's stock worth $5,705,000 after buying an additional 1,361,721 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 67.81% of the company's stock.
Analyst Ratings Changes
A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on SSP. Benchmark cut their price objective on E.W. Scripps from $10.00 to $8.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Zacks Research upgraded E.W. Scripps from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, Guggenheim restated a "neutral" rating on shares of E.W. Scripps in a research report on Friday, March 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $5.95.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on SSP
E.W. Scripps Company Profile
(
Get Free Report)
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.
Read More

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from InsiderTrades.com in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. Please send any questions or comments about this story to [email protected].