Torstar beats estimates

Article Excerpt

TORSTAR $6.22 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 78.9 million; Market cap: $490.7 million; SI Rating: Above Average) has reported second-quarter earnings that beat analysts’ forecasts of $0.29 a share, despite lower advertising revenues at its newspapers. Torstar earned $0.32 a share in the three months ended June 30, 2009. That’s down 30.4% from $0.46 a share a year earlier. Overall revenue fell 6.3%, to $373.7 million from $398.8 million. Revenue at the company’s newspaper and Internet operations fell 10.8%. This was slightly offset by a 4.4% increase at the Harlequin book-publishing business, which supplies the remaining 33% of revenue. The recession has hurt Torstar’s advertising revenue, particularly real-estate and employment ads. In response, the company is lowering its costs, and has cut 500 jobs (or 7% of its workforce) over the past year. These savings, combined with lower newsprint costs, will let it keep paying quarterly dividends of $0.0925 a share, for a 6.0% annual yield. Torstar is still a buy. buy…