Friday, October 14, 2011

Stock | Ahead of Q3 report, price target gets cut

Gannett shares fell sharply in after-hours trading today after investment advisor Benchmark Co. cut its price target, ahead of the release Monday of what's expected to be another weak quarterly financial report.

GCI plunged $1.64 a share -- 15% -- to $9.30, according to Google Finance. Shares had closed at $10.94, up 16 cents, in regular trading after Benchmark set a new target of $14, down from $18.

Monday, GCI is expected to report third-quarter earnings of 44 cents a share vs. 42 cents the year before, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Financial. They are forecasting revenue of $1.27 billion vs. $1.31 billion on another decline in print advertising.

For investors, the biggest worry is whether GCI's long-running slump in print advertising worsened during the July-September period, the Associated Press says. During the second quarter, print advertising fell 7% year-over-year.

Monday's report will be the first since Gracia Martore was named chief executive after Craig Dubow's retirement for health reasons. She'll discuss results and answer analyst questions during a 10 a.m. ET conference call.

That call is open to the public on a listen-only basis, and will be broadcast from GCI's website; details, here. Plan to listen via this link.

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