What Happened:

Shares of local television broadcasting and media company Gray Television (NYSE:GTN) fell 22.2% in the morning session after the company reported fourth quarter results with revenue and EPS missing analysts' expectations. In addition, its revenue guidance for next quarter fell short of Wall Street's estimates. 

On the other hand, Gray Television beat analysts' operating margin expectations this quarter. The company noted it saw an improvement in the automobile advertising category, perhaps signaling the auto industry is emerging from its current downturn. Furthermore, it saw increased political advertising revenue as politicians gear up for the 2024 elections. Lastly, Gray Television's CFO, Jim Ryan, announced he would retire. He will stay with the company until 2025 and be replaced by Jeff Gignac, who will be in an Executive Vice President role until Ryan retires. Gignac was the former Head of Media & Telecom Investment Banking at Wells Fargo Securities. Overall, this was a weaker quarter for Gray Television.

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What is the market telling us:

Gray Television's shares are somewhat volatile and over the last year have had 39 moves greater than 5%. But moves this big are very rare even for Gray Television and that is indicating to us that this news had a significant impact on the market's perception of the business.

Gray Television is down 33.1% since the beginning of the year, and at $6.11 per share it is trading 52% below its 52-week high of $12.73 from February 2023. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Gray Television's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $338.79.

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