As in bullish: Gannett Director John Jeffry Louis bought another 2,500 company shares today, boosting this direct GCI ownership to 16,153 shares, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He paid $14.82 a share. GCI was recently at $14.62, down 1.2%.
He indirectly owns another 126,884 shares through marital and family trusts, making him the top shareholder among the nine non-executive members of the board, SEC documents show. (Plus, he owns another 172,663 options.)
Louis is now the third director in recent weeks to buy GCI shares. Such trading is closely watched because "insiders" -- those with very close ties -- are thought to be in the best position to gauge a company's prospects.
The other two directors were Howard Elias, 8,000 shares on Wednesday, and Duncan McFarland, 15,000 last week.
This table shows stock ownership by all of Gannett's executive officers and major shareholders as of March 2011, the date of the most recent proxy report to shareholders. The next report is expected later this month.
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Louis is now the third director in recent weeks to buy GCI shares. Such trading is closely watched because "insiders" -- those with very close ties -- are thought to be in the best position to gauge a company's prospects.
The other two directors were Howard Elias, 8,000 shares on Wednesday, and Duncan McFarland, 15,000 last week.
This table shows stock ownership by all of Gannett's executive officers and major shareholders as of March 2011, the date of the most recent proxy report to shareholders. The next report is expected later this month.
All this means is that the directors recognize Gannett stock gives them a good dividend - over 5%. And since they have a say on where the dividend is set, they know it's good for awhile. The dividend will hold the stock price up barring a catastrophe. Not a lot of safe places to get a yield over 5% these days, unless you want to try a REIT or MLP. And REITs are like walking on glass - eventually you WILL start bleeding.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing about the dividend. Remember when Microsoft started paying a dividend? The main reason was to give the original owners (Gates, Allen, etc) some cash flow without having to sell stock. Bill Gates owns 500 MILLION shares, and he gets 80 cents a year from each one. Do the math. BTW, Microsoft trades at the same price today as it did 10 YEARS AGO. So even though a long-term shareholder has seen ZERO GROWTH in 10 years, Bill Gates has pulled a couple billion bucks out of the company.
Understand what a dividend is for. And WHOM it is for.
Too bad Gannett doesn't sell for the same price it did 10 years ago.
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