Laurence Tarica, a director at Gannett (GCI), recently bought 50,000 shares. The buy increased his holding by 5%, and came to a total cost of $225,000.
This marks the first insider activity of 2024. Tarica was the last buyer of shares with a 200,000 buy for $370,000 back in November 2023. 2023 also saw a buy from the company CEO, for 60,000 shares valued at just over $220,000. Over the past two years, there have been no insider sales.
Overall, Gannett insiders own 9.5% of shares.
The regional newspaper owner and operator has rallied nearly 80% in the past year. Shares were recently upgraded, which could lead to further gains in the months ahead.
The company’s revenues fell by 5%, and Gannett failed to produce a profit. The newspaper business continues to struggle, both as part of the struggling media sector, and because of the high costs of producing physical content in an increasingly digital world.
Even with that poor performance, Gannett shares trade at about 0.25 times their price-to-sales.
Action to take: While the fundamentals are weak, shares are trending higher, and are likely to continue to do so as a momentum play for aggressive investors.
For traders, the January 2025 $5 calls, already in-the-money, and trading or about $0.60, could see mid-double-digit returns or better on a further gain from here.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any company mentioned in this article.