Cost cuts will lift Telus earnings

Article Excerpt

TELUS INTERNATIONAL (CDA) INC. $10 remains a buy for aggressive investors. The operator of call centres (Toronto symbol TIXT; Aggressive Growth Portfolio; Manufacturing sector; Shares outstanding: 274.0 million; Market cap: $2.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; No dividend paid; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.telusinternational.com) paid $1.17 billion in January 2023 for 86% of WillowTree (all amounts except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Based in Virginia, that firm designs and builds websites and mobile phone apps for businesses. Due to that purchase, Telus International’s revenue in the three months ended September 30, 2023, rose 7.8%, to $663 million from $615 million a year earlier. Excluding WillowTree, revenue rose by $6 million, or 1.0%. If you disregard costs related to the acquisition and other unusual items, earnings dropped 34.4%, to $0.21 a share (or a total of $58 million) from $0.32 a share (or $87 million). That’s due to higher employee salaries and interest costs. The company is now cutting jobs and finding other efficiencies…