Thursday, August 20, 2009

The WSJ's "Heard on the Street" column

Today they had a column on the newspaper stocks, indicating that they thought the pickings were slim. Does that mean the WSJ is recomending the NY Times? After all, isn't Carlos Slim it's biggest shareholder?

But the WSJ did say this:

It is a different story for those publishers like Gannett, E.W. Scripps and A.H. Belo with healthier balance sheets. Gannett, for instance, will generate $500 million of free cash flow this year, estimates Gabelli & Co. analyst Barry Lucas. That translates to more than $2 a share, which means that even after its recent rally Gannett is trading at only about four times free cash.

So I liked AHC at .99. Now that's it's $3.64 the WSJ says it has a healthier balance sheet. So they touted Gannett and GCI is at 7.77.

Oh no--triplicate numbers being used to tout a stock!

Is the WSJ trying to legitimize my "Google tip" story?