Regarding the total number of Gannett stockowners listed in the company's annual report, Anonymous@5:08 a.m. wrote: "Only 8,900 shareholders? Is there a zero or two missing from that statistic?"That seems low, given GCI employment was 46,100 during the relevant period. But I've just checked the number, and it's correct; see the screenshot above, from page 3 of the Form 10-K, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Feb. 28, 2008.
Indeed, the total is down 30% from five years ago: Gannett had 12,800 stockholders at the end of 2003, that year's 10-K says. Yet, companywide employment -- 53,000 back then -- is down just 13% over those five years, suggesting a further concentration of ownership among big institutional owners.
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I wonder if they are counting just brokerage firms holding shares for individual shareholders, rather than the shareholders themselves. Almost used "investors" rather than shareholders just now - not a word that should be used in connection with GCI stock.
ReplyDeleteHey Ex-CJ - John Mura to the rescue.
ReplyDeleteDoes this indicate employees have dumped the stock? Does this include employee stockholders?
ReplyDeleteLook closely how the 401k rules are written. Simplified: Your emplyoee match shares are only virtually your shares until you cash out, rollover to an IRA etc. No con going on, but it's in there somewhere under the NAV (net asset value) or other explanation, as I recall, (I know, I should look up the exact citation for you.) Anyway, if you're hanging onto you shares when you rollover, you really do get them.
ReplyDelete10:49 am: You sure about that? I thought all rollovers from the 401(k) were 100% in the form of cash: a check written to the new trustee account.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went through this a year ago, I don't remember having the option to getting my rollover in whole or part in Gannett stock.
Also note the explainer in the previous thread about what being a "shareholder" means. When I had Gannett stock in my portfolio, I wasn't a shareholder. My *brokerage* was a shareholder and bought and sold the stock it held on my behalf.
ReplyDelete11:24 am: So, you did not receive a proxy card? Your broker voted your shares?
ReplyDeleteI get a proxy card and an annual report every year, and my only Gannett holdings are through my 401k.
ReplyDeleteJim,
ReplyDeleteAs I recall, when the brokerage house holds your shares in "street name" they send you the proxy statement and ask you how you want the shares voted.
If you have the certificates, GCI sends the material to you and you vote....
73s,
John M. Simpson
Former Deputy Editor
USA Today
There are more than 228 million Gannett shares outstanding. If these were individual stockholders, the average would be more than 25,000 shares per stockholder. Granted, most of Gannett's stock is held by institutions, but that's still a big number.
ReplyDeleteMr. Simpson:
ReplyDeleteWhy do you sign your posts "73s"? Were you in the Navy or a Ham operator and this is from the Phillips Code, or is it copyediting code (like 33)?
Leave it to a newbie reporter to ask. (And, for the cynics on this blog, this is not a joke of a question. I'm really curious.)
@2/24/2009 4:14 PM:
ReplyDeletePlease call me John.
When I was executive editor on Guam I used a telex a lot. There were several number codes I used. "73s" means regards. It was also common on wire service messages.
Other number codes are:
30= end
96s= kudos
88s = love and kisses
Wire services used other codes in their internal messages. UPI referred to AP as "Rox." AP called UPI "Brand X." At least in its Asia Pacific Divison, UPI referred to U.S. dollars as "coplams."
I started signing messages with 73s when I used the telex and kept it up as sort of a trademark. I also always signed my memos with red ink. That got started when the PDN publisher always used orange.
Al Neuharth always had orange or "pumpkin" colored memo pads. I stole a pad once and also grabbed one of John C. Quinn's memo pads, too, and had some fun -- but that's another story.
As I used "73s," I was always curious who would ask what it meant and why I used it. Many folks are too embarrassed to ask questions about what they don't know.
I find it interesting that Doug McCorkindale asked me what it meant; so did Jim Hopkins.
Glad you asked. It means you've got a key attribute to being a successful reporter: a willingness to ask what you don't know.
Keep it up. Folks like you are what's going to turn this company around.
96s and 73s,
John
Doug McCorkindale and Jim Hopkins in the same sentence: Perhaps, not a good sign.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm one of those ex-stockholders (and since December of '07 an ex-employee; I'm a buyoutee). I wasn't smart enough to sell it high (not that long ago), and so I used the sale late last year to take a nice big loss on my income taxes. 250-some shares out, about $1,800, $1,900 back. Man oh man. . .
ReplyDeleteAnon@5:08 a.m. here. I usually sign my posts with a link to a page on ytmnd.com, but I didn't do that at 5:08 because I was using the iPhone, which has no copy and paste.
ReplyDeleteIt figures. The one time I write something in comments, worthy of being mentioned in a later post, I go anonymous. It would've been so cool if Jim wrote "One point twenty-one gigawatts wrote:"
Let's put this to rest. There are more than 100,000 individual shareholders of Gannett. Many have their shares, not in certificate form, but in a financial institution like Fidelity, UBS, Schwab, etc. When counting shareholders as you are, you are counting the shares held in a (wall) street name. That is, Fidelity may have 10,000 people who own gannett stock or any other stock...that counts as ONE in these numbers.
ReplyDeleteThis is not only a month late but off-topic. But is this the same John Simpson who couldn't get his pages in on time at the Sun-Bulletin in '72?
ReplyDeleteIf so, I hope you've thriving, wherever you are. I remember you fondly, if not the Binghamton winters.