A number of firms have modified their ratings and price targets on shares of Gannett (NYSE: GCI) recently:

  • Gannett had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Zacks. They now have a $19.00 price target on the stock. Zacks‘ analyst wrote, “Gannett’s second-quarter 2012 earnings of $0.56 per share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.53 but fell 3.4% from the prior-year quarter, reflecting a slump in publishing advertising demand and a marginal fall in circulation revenue. However, growth across Broadcasting and Digital segments benefited the quarter. Television revenue rose 11.2% during the quarter. Management now expects television advertising revenue to climb in the low-thirties percentage in the third quarter. The company is also witnessing higher retransmission fees. We observe that Gannett’s high dependence on advertising revenue, which depends on the health of the economy, remains a potential threat. To make it less susceptible to economic conditions, Gannett is diversifying its business and adding new revenue streams. The company is also streamlining its cost structure, strengthening its balance sheet and restructuring its portfolio. The company’s long-term objective is to return $1.3 billion to investors and attain annual revenue growth of 2% to 4% by fiscal 2015.”
  • Gannett had its price target raised by analysts at UBS AG to $18.00. They wrote, “Since GCI announced its content monetization strategy last March, it has rolled out its CSM in ~70 markets. The CSM prevents non-subscribers from accessing more than 7-20 articles/month in an attempt to convert those users into paid subs. GCI also unveiled a new pricing structure which converts all subs to digital subs with the option to add print delivery for an addt’l charge. In this report, we analyze the model and are now more bullish on the prospects on GCI achieving close to the stated goal of $100M of incremental EBITDA in 2013 from circ revenue.”
  • Gannett had its “neutral” rating reaffirmed by analysts at UBS AG.
  • Gannett had its price target raised by analysts at Benchmark Co. from $18.00 to $21.00. They now have a “buy” rating on the stock. They wrote, “At an investor conference on Sept 19, Gannett (GCI-Buy, PT from $18 to $21) management updated the progress of its all-access subscription model, which was launched a few months ago in all of its 49 newspaper markets. Gannett is also tailoring content to meet the interest of readers on a market by market basis. As a result, circulation revenues are increasing for the first time in years and Gannett is experiencing 96-97% circulation renewal rates, with growth in circulation revenues led by Sunday circulation expected in the 2H12 and in 2013. Management did not provide an update on newspaper advertising but indicated it is a little better in 3Q12 than 2Q12. In view of the trend through the first half and the sluggish economic growth, we expect newspaper advertising revenue will continue to face headwinds through 2012.”
  • Gannett had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Benchmark Company. They now have a $21.00 price target on the stock.

Gannett opened at 18.39 on Tuesday. Gannett has a 1-year low of $8.90 and a 1-year high of $19.99. The company has a market cap of $4.256 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.09.

Gannett Co, Inc. is an international media and marketing solutions company, delivering content and services across an integrated, multi-platform portfolio.