Within the next few business days, Meredith Corp. is expected to release its fiscal Q4 2019 earnings report.
With a date still unknown as of noon Thursday (8/8), Meredith, which owns a group of local TV stations, saw its Board of Directors on Wednesday declare a regular quarterly dividend of $0.575 per share.
This translates to $2.30 on an annual basis.
The dividend will be payable on September 13, to shareholders of record on August 30.
It’s good incentive to not sell MDP shares. However, that’s just what’s happening for Meredith, with shares slipping 3.6% to $49.65 as of 12:17pm Eastern.
That’s a year-to-date low for Meredith, which bottomed out at $48.10 on Dec. 17, 2018 and has now reverted to where MDP was trading in October 2016.
Perhaps vexing Meredith is its still-unresolved retransmission consent agreement with DISH Network.
On the evening of July 16 local TV stations owned by Meredith Corp. in 12 DMAs including Phoenix, Nashville and Atlanta were blocked by DISH, by law, in absence of a new retrans deal.
There’s been no word on when a resolution may arrive.
The following stations are currently being blocked by DISH Network to its subscribers:
- Atlanta: CBS affiliate WGCL-46
- Phoenix: CBS affiliate KPHO-5 and “AZ Family” news-intensive KTVK-3
- St. Louis: CBS affiliate KMOV-4
- Portland: FOX affiliate KPTV-12 and MyNetworkTV affiliate KPDX-TV
- Nashville NBC affiliate WSMV-4
- Kansas City: CBS affiliate KCTV-TV and non-affiliated KSMO-TV
- Hartford-New Haven: CBS affiliate WFSB-3
- Greenville-Spartanburg: FOX affiliate WHNS-TV
- Las Vegas: FOX affiliate KVVU-5
- Mobile-Pensacola: FOX affiliate WALA-TV
- Flint-Saginaw, Mich.: CBS affiliate WNEM-TV
- Springfield-Holyoke, Mass.: CBS affiliate WSHM-TV, FOX affiliate WGGB-DT and ABC affiliate WGGB-TV
