Transcontinental benefits from cost cuts

Article Excerpt

TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $16 (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 78.0 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 4.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tctranscontinental.com) earned $36.8 million in its fiscal 2014 second quarter, which ended April 30, 2014. That’s up 12.9% from $32.6 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 11.9%, to $0.47 from $0.42, on more shares outstanding. These gains are mainly due to cost savings from a restructuring plan that mostly consisted of job cuts. Revenue fell 3.8% in the latest quarter, to $498.2 million from $517.8 million, as the slow economy hurt advertising sales at the company’s newspapers and flyer-printing businesses. These results do not include Missouri-based Capri Packaging, which Transcontinental bought for $146.1 million in May 2014. Capri, which makes plastic food containers, should add $72 million U.S. to Transcontinental’s annual revenue. The stock trades at just 8.2 times the $1.94 a share the company should earn in fiscal 2014. The $0.64 dividend…