StockNews.com Downgrades Lee Enterprises (NYSE:LEE) to Hold

StockNews.com cut shares of Lee Enterprises (NYSE:LEE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Tuesday morning.

Lee Enterprises Price Performance

LEE stock opened at $18.05 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 69.34, a current ratio of 0.92 and a quick ratio of 0.87. The company’s 50-day moving average is $11.25 and its 200-day moving average is $11.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $111.73 million, a PE ratio of -6.04 and a beta of 1.21. Lee Enterprises has a 1 year low of $7.56 and a 1 year high of $19.63.

Lee Enterprises (NYSE:LEE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The company reported ($0.73) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.68 by ($1.41). Lee Enterprises had a negative net margin of 2.88% and a negative return on equity of 112.98%. The firm had revenue of $150.58 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $165.48 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Lee Enterprises will post -2.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Lee Enterprises

In other news, major shareholder Raghav Nath Bahl sold 71,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.00, for a total transaction of $1,065,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 30,205 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $453,075. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders own 11.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A hedge fund recently raised its stake in Lee Enterprises stock. Gabelli Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Lee Enterprises, Incorporated (NYSE:LEE) by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 123,441 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,900 shares during the period. Gabelli Funds LLC owned about 2.01% of Lee Enterprises worth $1,371,000 as of its most recent SEC filing. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 39.20% of the company’s stock.

Lee Enterprises Company Profile

Lee Enterprises, Incorporated provides local news and information, and advertising services in the United States. The company offers digital subscription platforms; daily, weekly, and monthly newspapers and niche publications; and web hosting and content management services. It also provides advertising and marketing services, such as audience extension, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, web and mobile production, social media services, and reputation monitoring and management.