Updating TORSTAR, TRANSCANADA CORP. and BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA.

Article Excerpt

TORSTAR $5.69 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 79.9 million; Market cap: $458.5 million; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 9.2%; www.torstar.com) reported lower-than-expected earnings in the latest quarter. In the three months ended June 30, 2013, Torstar’s earnings fell 44.7%, to $18.0 million, or $0.23 a share, from $32.6 million, or $0.41, a year earlier. If you exclude writedowns and other unusual items, earnings per share would have declined 32.6%, to $0.29. On that basis, the latest earnings missed the consensus estimate of $0.36 a share. Revenue declined 7.5%, to $336.6 million from $363.7 million. The slow economy continues to hurt advertising sales at the company’s newspapers (which supply 72% of its revenue), particularly The Toronto Star, its flagship paper. In response to the weaker revenue, Torstar continues to lay off workers and outsource certain editorial functions, such as laying out printed pages. These moves should cut the newspaper division’s costs by $23.8 million in 2013. Torstar is still a..