Miller Value Partners, an investment management company, released its “Deep Value Strategy” first-quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The year 2025 has been unpredictable. After setting new highs in mid-February, the market saw a double-digit decline towards the end of the quarter, capping off a strong start to the year. As the administration implemented global tariffs, sentiment swiftly deteriorated due to growing economic uncertainty. In the quarter, the Deep Value Select strategy had a -12.8% drawdown compared to -.2% return for the S&P 1500 Value Index and -9.9% return for the S&P 600 Value Index. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.
In its first-quarter 2025 investor letter, Miller Value Deep Value Strategy highlighted stocks such as Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI). Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) is a US-based media and marketing solutions company. The one-month return of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) was 12.30%, and its shares gained 29.00% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On April 22, 2025, Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) stock closed at $3.47 per share with a market capitalization of $508.133 million.
Miller Value Deep Value Strategy stated the following regarding Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) in its Q1 2025 investor letter:
“Our two largest detractors during the quarter were Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) and Nabors Industries (NBR), with shares down 43% and 26%, respectively, during the quarter. Both companies’ share prices are at deep discounts to our view of their long-term fundamental value, and we have recently increased position sizes in both holdings.
Gannett has had ongoing success with its long-term transformation to a digital media company. Digital revenues (subscriptions, advertising, media services, partnerships, and e-commerce) are expected to become half of Gannett’s revenue later this year as the company focuses on monetizing its 200M monthly audience reach. The secular headwinds of the traditional newspaper business remain as the most obvious near-term risk. While this portion of the business may continue to decline, Gannett has ongoing cost reduction opportunities to drive greater operating efficiencies. Gannett shares remains significantly mispriced in our opinion at only .17x revenue and >50% normalized free cash flow yield. New York Times (NYT), which went through a similar digital transformation ten years ago, has a much higher valuation level, with price to sales at 3x and Enterprise Value to EBITDA (“EV/EBITDA”) greater than 15x. In addition, Gannett’s anti-trust suit versus Google is very similar to the DOJ anti-trust suit against the company. Kellogg Hansen, a firm that specializes in anti-trust cases, with successful historical awards and appeals of more than $1B, is representing Gannett. The law firm agreed to success-based compensation for their services. Winning the anti-trust case would accelerate Gannett’s transformation and accrue significant value to shareholders. We believe the current share price reflects limited value for the long-term prospects of the transformation plan and the significant chance of prevailing in the anti-trust case.”
An editor standing in a newsroom, overseeing the layout of a magazine cover.
Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Our database shows that 34 hedge fund portfolios held Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) at the end of the fourth quarter, compared to 28 in the third quarter. While we acknowledge the potential of Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as NVIDIA but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
In another article, we covered Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI) and shared the list of best news and digital media stocks to buy. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q1 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.