Key investments will fuel Gannett’s growth

Article Excerpt

GANNETT CO. INC. $14 (New York symbol GCI; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 237.0 million; Market cap: $3.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 5.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.gannett.com) earned $80.8 million, or $0.34 a share, in the first quarter of 2012. That’s down 18.3% from $98.9 million, or $0.41 a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 2.6%, to $1.22 billion from $1.25 billion. The company spent $20 million on new growth projects in the quarter, including new applications for mobile devices and an expansion of its sports-related news services. This was the main reason for the lower earnings. As well, advertising revenue at its newspapers and TV stations should rebound during the Summer Olympics and the run-up to the November presidential election. Gannett is a buy. buy…