Printer pays special dividend

Article Excerpt

TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $18 is a buy for aggressive investors. The company (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 83.6 million; Market cap: $1.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 5.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tctranscontinental.com) is Canada’s leading printer of newspapers, advertising flyers, in-store displays, magazines and books. It also makes plastic packaging for consumer products. In its fiscal 2025 first quarter, ended January 26, 2025, Transcontinental’s revenue fell 5.5%, to $643.0 million from $680.4 million a year earlier. That’s partly due to the recent sale of its industrial packaging business for $132.0 million. Lower demand for medical packaging and advertising flyers also contributed to the decline. However, thanks to a successful restructuring plan, which included job cuts and closing older plants, earnings before one-time items rose 11.0%, to $41.5 million from $37.4 million. Due to fewer shares outstanding, per-share earnings gained 14.0%, to $0.49 from $0.43. Thanks to those improving earnings, the company will pay a special dividend of $1.00 a share on…