In a just-filed regulatory notice, AXA Financial says it has nearly doubled its ownership of Gannett to 10.1% of all shares, just four months after disclosing it had become a major investor in the nation's No. 1 newspaper publisher.
The affiliate of U.S. money manager Sanford C. Bernstein emerged as a top investor in Gannett in February, when it told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it had accumulated 5.3% of GCI's shares -- a total of 12.3 million -- as of Dec. 31, 2007.
In today's SEC filing, AXA says it held and shared voting power over 23.2 million shares as of May 31, giving it a stake that rivals Brandes Investment Partners of San Diego, Calif.
AXA's move could signal its belief Gannett stock is still undervalued, making it a good investment for a firm that's been a passive investor. Or it could be the first step toward accumulating enough shares to pressure management into moving more aggressively on its slow-go strategic plan.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
4 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."
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Perhaps, but Gannett stock is so low right now that it ebbs and flows with the market and the price of oil. And during early trading this morning, GCI is down 70 cents / share.
ReplyDeleteThe only people buying this stock are big funds that can afford to lose. Why don't we see the executives buying the stock?
ReplyDeleteWhy is GCI price dropping? It seem to me, that a major player, in the stock market, is buying up a newspaper stock, the points should be going up> Just remember,AXA FINANCIAL, newspaper chains, can, just disappear off the face of the world! I wonder what ever happen to Horvitz"s newspapers.
ReplyDelete$26.50, down .95 cents a share today! What's going on?
ReplyDelete