Gannett Company Inc. (GCI) is a media and marketing solutions company headquartered in Tyson’s Corner, VA.
The News
Last Tuesday morning Gannett announced it would split into separate print and broadcasting companies, causing at least one trader to take an aggressive long position in GCI stock on Monday in what was an otherwise thin day for unusual options activity.
The Big Trade
OptionHacker flagged an order of 3,047 GCI Aug 34 Calls bought for $0.45. This trade isn’t significant so much for the dollar amount of long premium (only about $137k), but when it came across the market for the Aug 34 line was $0.20 wide. Buying these calls on the offer in such a wide market represents an extraordinary amount of conviction on the part of the trader. Shortly after the initial order, we saw another (possibly the same) trader come in and buy more contracts in the Aug 34 line at $0.50. By the end of Monday’s session, over 6,500 options in this line traded.
Recent Trading Action
GCI stock closed Monday’s session at $33.97, and has traded in a 52-week range of $23.75-$35.70. Shares are up nearly 15% year to date, and reached their 52-week high last Tuesday following the announcement of the split.
