Topic: How To Invest

Hi Pat: I am retired, hence primarily an income investor. How do you see the longer-term prospects of Shaw Communications? Is it worth continuing to hold? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

Shaw Communications, $27.49, symbol SJR.B on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 464.7 million; Market cap: $13.0 billion; www.shaw.ca), is one of Canada’s largest cable TV operators. It has 1.9 million basic cable subscribers (mostly in Western Canada), as well as 854,389 satellite customers through its ownership of Shaw Direct. The company also provides high-speed Internet to 1.9 million clients and telephone services to 1.4 million. In September 2014, Shaw completed its $1.2-billion purchase of Colorado-based ViaWest, a privately held operator of data centres, cloud storage and information technology services. ViaWest has 27 data centres in the western U.S. In the three months ended February 28, 2015, Shaw’s revenue rose 4.9%, to $1.34 billion from $1.27 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 26.1%, to $0.34 from $0.46, mostly due to one-time costs related to a restructuring of its customer service call centres that included cutting 1,600 employees. Cash flow per share fell 1.3%, to $0.77 from $0.78. The company raised its monthly dividend by…