Shares of Gannett Co., Inc. (GCI) climbed in premarket trade on Friday to a new 5-year high of $35.79, after a 13F filing by billionaire investor Carl Icahn showed that he took a new 2.7 million share stake in the company. A subsequent filing however, shows that Icahn significantly increased this stake to nearly 15 million shares.
Icahn said he acquired the “positions in the [GCI] Shares in the belief that they were undervalued and that value could be created by splitting the Issuer into separate print and broadcast companies.” Gannett, the owner of USA Today, announced on August 5 that it planned that very separation.
Icahn said in filing with the SEC that he intends to have “discussions with representatives of the issuer’s management and board of directors relating to the planned separation, corporate governance, capitalization and capital allocation.”
Icahn, who is worth more than $23 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires, has recently taken large positions at companies including Apple (AAPL), Family Dollar Stores (FDO), Netflix (NFLX), EBay (EBAY) and Dell Inc., agitating management and directors by fighting for board representation and strategic shareholder-friendly changes.
In premarket hours trade on Friday Gannett shares were up more than 5%. In the past 52 weeks, GCI has traded between a low of $23.75 and a high of $35.70, which is almost 51% above that low price. Over the past week the stock has gained 7.75%. Ticker is up about 33% y/y and 15.11% year-to-date.
The chart below shows where the stock of the $7.68 billion market cap company has traded over the last year, with the 50-day and 200-day moving averages included.
Gannett Co., Inc. operates as a media and marketing solutions company in the U.S. and internationally. The company was founded in 1906 and is headquartered in McLean, Virginia.
Disclaimer: This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to make a purchase after clicking a link, we may receive a commission at no additional cost to you. Thank you for your support!
Leave a Reply