Topic: Wealth Management

Aggressive investing: Weak European economy weighs on Aastra’s results

Aastra Technologies, symbol AAH on Toronto, develops and markets products and systems for accessing communication networks, including the Internet. The aggressive investing stock’s technology is centred around business telephone systems, and includes products that integrate traditional and mobile phones.

In the three months ended December 31, 2010, Aastra’s sales fell 0.8%, to $216.0 million from $217.8 million a year earlier. If you exclude the negative impact of exchange rates, sales would have risen 8.7%. The weaker sales pushed down Aastra’s earnings by 6.1%, to $14.4 million from $15.3 million a year earlier. Earnings per share declined 8.1%, to $1.02 from $1.11, on more shares outstanding.

The company gets three quarters of its sales from Europe. The weaker European economy has hurt demand for the aggressive investing stock’s products, and forced it to cut its prices. It needs a sustained European economic recovery to show a sustained rise in sales and earnings.

Aastra holds cash of $94.9 million, or $6.78 a share, and has no long-term debt.

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