New cost-cutting plan spurs Transcontinental

Article Excerpt

Thanks to a new cost-cutting plan, Transcontinental’s shares have rebounded nearly 40% since falling to $10 in November 2023. While the company remains vulnerable to an economic slowdown, it stands to gain as inflation eases and interest rates start to decline, possibly later this year. That should let it maintain its current dividend rate, which offers investors a high 6.4% yield. TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $14 is a buy for aggressive investors. The company (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 86.6 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.4; Dividend yield: 6.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tctranscontinental.com) is Canada’s leading printer of newspapers, advertising flyers, in-store displays, magazines and books. To cut the cyclical risk of its commercial printing business, in May 2018 Transcontinental paid $1.7 billion for Chicago-based Coveris Americas. That firm makes plastic packaging for food, medical and industrial products at plants in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico and New Zealand. Thanks to that purchase, the company now gets 57%…