Friday, February 29, 2008
Gannett stock: 'Somehow it's in my portfolio'
Commenting on my post about bonuses for the top brass, a reader says of Gannett stock and the 401(k) plan: "I thought I opted out of purchasing the stock when I got hired, but somehow it's in my portfolio." Perfect opportunity for my advice on the retirement plan. Back then, Dec. 15, I urged employees to reconsider investing precious retirement money in Gannett shares. GCI sold for $35.30 at the time, Google Finance says. Since then, it's fallen another 14.4%, based on yesterday's closing price.
3 comments:
Jim says: "Proceed with caution; this is a free-for-all comment zone. I try to correct or clarify incorrect information. But I can't catch everything. Please keep your posts focused on Gannett and media-related subjects. Note that I occasionally review comments in advance, to reject inappropriate ones. And I ignore hostile posters, and recommend you do, too."
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
the company pays its contribution to the 401k in gci shares. all the person has to do is go to
ReplyDeletehttp://resources.hewitt.com/gannett (which s/he probably has visited to set up benefits choices) and move the funds from gci to another investment choice. money can be shifted among any of the funds at any time (except sunday mornings, when the site is down for maintenance). the reader should be checking fund performance at least quarterly and, when necessary, rebalancing the portfolio anyway. the stats on how the various choices are doing are just a click or two away. (and no, i'm not a business writer, just someone who learned the hard way to pay attention to this stuff.
bear in mind, to keep from owning any gci for very long, the reader will have to do this every payday or two.
as for the shares i stupidly bought through the esop, i'm holding them for the time (in a couple of years) that i'll need a big loss to offset some gains.
Remember, the matches your contribution with Gannett stock.
ReplyDeleteI typically go into my 401(k) portfolio once a quarter and transfer the Gannett stock that has accumulated into the mutual funds of my choice.
I get paid every other Friday. I place the sell order for the GCI shares that the company contributes to my 401 when I get home from work that evening.
ReplyDeleteAs for shares accumulated in ESOP, I felt bad about dumping mine at 51 and change: After all, it wasn't that long ago that GCI was selling in the 80s.
Twenty (down) points later, I don't feel so bad about selling at 51 ... and I don't see the price rising any time soon.