Document: Martore sells $1.3M of Gannett stock; she gives another 75,000 shares to a family trust

CEO Gracia Martore has just sold a chunk of her stock, according to a regulatory filing this afternoon that could indicate she expects capital gains tax rates will rise next year for wealthy Americans after the fiscal cliff negotiations now underway in Washington.

The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission involves 150,000 shares worth $2.7 million at today's closing price -- one of the single-biggest stakes I've seen in play by a company executive in recent years.

This was a three-step transaction:

1. Martore exercised options on 150,000 shares she was awarded nearly four years ago as part of her annual compensation. She paid the company $3.75 for each share -- the so-called "strike price" -- a total of $563,000.
2. She then gave about 75,000 of the shares to a family trust for estate planning purposes, the document says.
3. Then she sold the remaining 75,000 for between $17.73 and $18 a share -- a total of $1.3 million. The filing says Martore sold only those shares needed to pay the option price and taxes. 

The document doesn't identify the trust's name or its beneficiaries.

GCI shares closed this afternoon at $17.97, up 12 cents. They hit a 52-week high of $19.99 in late September. 

A good sign, or bad?
Wall Street closely follows stock trading by executives known as insiders. That's one way to measure how the top brass feels about their company's prospects and the direction of share prices. Selling shares could indicate an executive thinks prices have topped out; buying, that they're relatively cheap.

Martore

But it's also common for insiders to sell shares toward the end of the year to deal with income taxes in the following year. These tax-driven sales are more likely now amid the fiscal cliff negotiations between the White House and Congress.

Indeed, under an increasingly likely scenario, capital gains taxes on investments such as stock and real estate would rise early next year for the richest Americans, about 2% of all, including Martore. Investors selling before Dec. 31 will cut their tax bill.

Her trade was detailed in an SEC Form 4. (More about those forms.)

Martore, 61, was named chief executive in October 2011 after Craig Dubow retired for health reasons.

Her stock options are the first she's exercised from the 200,000 she was awarded in 2009, based on my review of regulatory filings.

These 150,000 options were among 781,000 she owned when last spring's annual proxy report to shareholders was published, the most recent available.