Updated at 6:50 p.m. ET: Shares closed at $19.07, up a strong 7.3%, amid a rally in newspaper industry stocks.
Earlier: Gannett shares are now trading at $18.72, up more than 5%. They started taking off about 1 p.m., although I'm not seeing any news driving the surge. Overall newspaper industry shares are higher, too.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
14 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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It's probably a surge based on this report. Argus, buying up shares.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mffais.com/newsarticles/2008-07-22/2426173-209142.html
Doubt it - 10,000 more shares when you already own 258,000 is not a market mover. Companies buy and sell blocks of stock all of the time. There are also companies selling chunks of GCI, but that is not driving the stock lower. I think you look back on the $14 price as a capitulation and now will see it come back up some. Still some ugliness ahead, but things may be getting better.
ReplyDeleteGCI makes the Motley Fool! http://tinyurl.com/58zpzw
ReplyDeleteI'm not stock market expert, but one I know thinks people are fanning out their investments as oil drops. *shrug* It's indiscriminate portfolio diversification.
ReplyDeleteGCI is up for a third straight day. I don't know if it's just a case of a rising market tide lifting all boats or what, but I am pleased at the good news.
ReplyDeleteDon"t you people know the REAL reason why GCI tock went up? Al's column mysterious returned online today> The one for last Friday, which for some reason did not show up last Friday> Plus the column, which for some reason disappeared last week> You don"t suppose their return had anything to do with Jim's blog, making mention of their disappearce last week? How does it feel to have so much POWER, Jim over your former BOSSES?
ReplyDeleteMy guess, FWIW, is that some of the newspaper sector recovery today, including GCI, is due to the passage of the housing rescue bill, and Bush rescinding his veto threat.
ReplyDeleteAnything that helps the housing market should help newspapers and their affiliated digitati classified spinoffs. Notice that NYTimes gained 2.64 percent on the same day they announced their Q2 earnings were down 82 percent year over year.
Also, it seems falling oil prices raise all boats.
So, good news for all with GCI in their 401(k)s.
more huge cuts, all payroll coming the next 2 days
ReplyDeleteA likely scenario, IMHO, is that there have been signs the economy is stabilizing -- and if that happens and Gannett stabilizes its revenues (and that's a couple of mighty big 'ifs'), then this stock is significantly undervalued by any objective measure. How many big companies do you know that have a forward price-to-earnings ratio under 6, a 13% profit margin and pay a current dividend of more than 9%?
ReplyDeleteIn short: This stock price fell much faster than the company declined. It looks like it's adjusting now. That says very little about the future of the company, by the way -- it just says there may be some market money to be made in the short term.
At our paper, we've stopped re-delivery for missed subscribers Monday through Friday.
ReplyDeleteIn other words, if somehow a home delivery subscriber doesn't get a paper in the morning, but calls (or goes online to note the miss) before noon, Circulation will no longer make a recovery run to get that subscriber their paper. Again, this is Monday through Friday only. And, yes, it's cost-savings move ... to provide poor customer service. As if the COEs weren't bad enough.
And we wonder why subscribers are leaving in droves.
Just curious, has a similar decision been made at other papers?
Don't know where you are, but that's the new policy in Springfield, Mo.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 8:27 a.m.
ReplyDeleteI'm in Jackson, MS.
Hey, Springfield and Jackson:
ReplyDeleteJust wondering...did your publisher or Circulation Director join Gannett after losing their jobs with the Airline Industry?
This is Jackson ...
ReplyDeleteLOL! No, both are long-time Gannettoids. The Publisher is a former Ad Director who made two previous stops as publisher in Gannett before landing in Jackson. Our Circ Director came from Tennessee. He's married to our Ad Director. They came to our paper as a "package."