10 Worst Broadcasting Stocks to Buy According to Short Sellers

4. Tegna Inc. (NYSE:TGNA)

Short % of Shares Outstanding As of August 15: 5.21%

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 31

Tegna Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) is a broadcast, digital media, and marketing services company that provides local news and entertainment.

Tegna Inc. is an American publicly traded broadcast, digital media, and marketing services company headquartered in Tysons Corner, Virginia. It was created on June 29, 2015, when the Gannett Company split into two publicly traded companies.

On September 6, it was announced that Tegna Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) is being removed from the S&P MidCap 400 index and is being added to the S&P SmallCap 600 index. 5.21% of the company’s shares were shorted on August 15. Still, by the second quarter of 2024, 31 hedge funds had stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management is the biggest stakeholder, with a value of $48,585,722.

On the same day, the Dallas Mavericks announced a new multi-year broadcast rights agreement with Tegna Inc. (NYSE:TGNA), which will increase the number of Texas households that can watch Mavericks games for free over-the-air.

Q2 2024 saw a year-over-year decline of 2.89%, attributed to a 7% and 3% decline in subscriber and national advertising segments respectively. Local advertising remained strong, driven by small and medium businesses. The political advertising revenue was up to $31.6 million from $6 million in the previous year in Q2.

Premion, a CTV sales platform of the company, will capitalize on the growing local market adoption of CTV advertising. It also highlighted the early success of the Summer Olympics in Paris and the expanded distribution of WNBA Indiana Fever and NHL Seattle Kraken games.

It received 10 National 2024 Edward R. Murrow Awards. KARE, a television station, was recognized for Overall Excellence for the 3rd consecutive year.

The company is benefiting from the return of local sports content to broadcast. Recent deals with sports teams and undergoing leadership changes are all working towards improving its operations. These positive developments make it a promising investment.

Here is what Hourglass Capital has to say about TEGNA Inc. (NYSE:TGNA) in its Q1 2022 investor letter:

“At the portfolio level, clients fully invested at the start of the year saw an average return of 5.4% in the first quarter after all associated fees. I made three sales during the quarter, all for very different reasons. First, I sold the entirety of our position in TEGNA, Inc., a broadcasting and digital media business, after the company received a leveraged buyout offer by two joint-venture private equity investors, Standard General and Apollo.”