Short Interest in Saga Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGA) Decreases By 32.9%

Saga Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGA) saw a large decrease in short interest in May. As of May 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,200 shares, a decrease of 32.9% from the May 15th total of 16,700 shares. Approximately 0.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 7,100 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.6 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Saga Communications

In other Saga Communications news, major shareholder Edward K. Christian Trust sold 9,583 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $12.72, for a total transaction of $121,895.76. Following the sale, the insider now owns 927,125 shares in the company, valued at $11,793,030. This represents a 1.02% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 10,074 shares of company stock valued at $128,110 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 22.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Saga Communications

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of SGA. Gate City Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Saga Communications by 94.5% in the fourth quarter. Gate City Capital Management LLC now owns 863,845 shares of the company’s stock worth $9,528,000 after purchasing an additional 419,714 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Saga Communications by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 354,831 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,914,000 after purchasing an additional 1,770 shares in the last quarter. Peapod Lane Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Saga Communications by 34.2% during the first quarter. Peapod Lane Capital LLC now owns 203,707 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,540,000 after purchasing an additional 51,884 shares in the last quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Saga Communications by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Bridgeway Capital Management LLC now owns 78,053 shares of the company’s stock valued at $861,000 after purchasing an additional 847 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Saga Communications by 8.9% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 58,432 shares of the company’s stock worth $645,000 after acquiring an additional 4,753 shares in the last quarter. 74.28% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Saga Communications Stock Performance

SGA opened at $12.22 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $78.70 million, a PE ratio of 22.22 and a beta of 0.27. The company has a quick ratio of 2.72, a current ratio of 2.72 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.93 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.96. Saga Communications has a fifty-two week low of $10.75 and a fifty-two week high of $16.57.

Saga Communications (NASDAQ:SGA) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported ($0.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.33) by $0.08. The company had revenue of $24.21 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $23.00 million. Saga Communications had a return on equity of 2.09% and a net margin of 3.15%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Saga Communications will post 0.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Saga Communications Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 27th. Investors of record on Friday, June 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 6th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.18%. Saga Communications’s dividend payout ratio is 181.82%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Wall Street Zen started coverage on Saga Communications in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company.

Saga Communications Company Profile

Saga Communications, Inc, a media company, engages in acquiring, developing, and operating broadcast properties in the United States. The company's radio stations employ various programming formats, including classic hits, country, classic country, hot/soft/urban adult contemporary, oldies, classic rock, rock, and news/talk.