HighTower Advisors LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in The New York Times Company $NYT

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its stake in shares of The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) by 70.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 18,541 shares of the company’s stock after selling 43,929 shares during the quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC’s holdings in New York Times were worth $920,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NYT. American National Bank & Trust purchased a new position in shares of New York Times during the first quarter worth about $45,000. Bartlett & CO. Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in New York Times in the first quarter valued at about $99,000. Putney Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in New York Times in the fourth quarter valued at about $102,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in New York Times in the first quarter valued at about $115,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its position in New York Times by 7.9% in the first quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 2,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $141,000 after purchasing an additional 208 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 95.37% of the company’s stock.

New York Times Trading Up 0.8%

NYT stock opened at $59.92 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $56.09 and a 200-day moving average of $52.79. The New York Times Company has a 12-month low of $44.83 and a 12-month high of $62.24. The company has a market cap of $9.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.88, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.09.

New York Times (NYSE:NYT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.08. New York Times had a net margin of 11.92% and a return on equity of 19.55%. The company had revenue of $685.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $670.22 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that The New York Times Company will post 2.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

New York Times Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 24th. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 9th were given a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, July 9th. New York Times’s payout ratio is currently 37.11%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director David S. Perpich sold 4,000 shares of New York Times stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.18, for a total transaction of $224,720.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 27,569 shares in the company, valued at $1,548,826.42. The trade was a 12.67% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP William Bardeen sold 5,000 shares of New York Times stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $58.04, for a total value of $290,200.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 11,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $652,543.72. This represents a 30.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,490 shares of company stock worth $769,928 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 1.90% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on NYT. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of New York Times from $54.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Guggenheim raised their price objective on shares of New York Times from $55.00 to $56.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of New York Times from $60.00 to $67.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Barclays set a $52.00 price objective on shares of New York Times and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of New York Times in a research report on Thursday, June 12th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $60.33.

About New York Times

The New York Times Company, together with its subsidiaries, creates, collects, and distributes news and information worldwide. The company operates through two segments, The New York Times Group and The Athletic. It offers The New York Times (The Times) through company’s mobile application, website, printed newspaper, and associated content, such as podcast.