Gannett (GCI) Lowered to “Sell” at Zacks Investment Research

Zacks Investment Research cut shares of Gannett (NYSE:GCI) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday, October 16th.

According to Zacks, “Gannett owns the publishing badets of the legacy Gannett company following its June 2015 split into two publicly traded companies – a broadcasting and digital company called TEGNA (Ticker: TGNA) and a publishing company called Gannett. The new Gannett owns the USA Today and a host of other media badets. “

A number of other badysts have also recently issued reports on GCI. TheStreet raised Gannett from a c rating to a b- rating in a research report on Friday, June 22nd. Noble Financial set a $17.00 price objective on Gannett and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Friday, August 10th. ValuEngine raised Gannett from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Monday, July 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Gannett from a neutral rating to an underweight rating and set a $10.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, July 6th. Two equities research badysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and one has badigned a buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $12.50.

Shares of GCI stock opened at $9.20 on Tuesday. Gannett has a 1-year low of $8.42 and a 1-year high of $12.38. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The firm has a market cap of $1.08 billion, a PE ratio of 8.33 and a beta of 0.91.

Gannett (NYSE:GCI) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 9th. The company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, beating badysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.10. Gannett had a return on equity of 13.14% and a net margin of 0.83%. The business had revenue of $730.77 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $739.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.18 earnings per share. Gannett’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research badysts anticipate that Gannett will post 1.09 EPS for the current year.

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 24th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 10th will be given a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 7th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.96%. Gannett’s dividend payout ratio is currently 62.14%.

In related news, CMO Andrew T. Yost sold 3,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.31, for a total transaction of $36,085.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief marketing officer now owns 3,534 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,435.54. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Andrew T. Yost sold 5,175 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.39, for a total value of $53,768.25. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,034 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $73,083.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 9,012 shares of company stock valued at $93,318 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.74% of the company’s stock.

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Gannett by 2.3% during the first quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,416,763 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,139,000 after acquiring an additional 31,390 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Gannett by 1.2% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 14,629,838 shares of the company’s stock valued at $146,007,000 after acquiring an additional 180,479 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund increased its stake in Gannett by 27.4% during the first quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 170,397 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,701,000 after acquiring an additional 36,628 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in Gannett by 25.5% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 32,843 shares of the company’s stock valued at $328,000 after acquiring an additional 6,677 shares during the period. Finally, Asset Management One Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Gannett during the first quarter valued at about $252,000. 98.27% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Gannett

Gannett Co, Inc operates as a media and marketing solutions company. The company operates through Publishing and ReachLocal segments. The company offers print and digital daily and non-daily publications under the USA TODAY NETWORK brand name in the United States; and Newsquest, which has print and online publications portfolio of approximately 170 news brands and 80 magazines in the United Kingdom.

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