Stock market picks: Foreign-exchange losses weigh on Aastra’s results

Aastra Technologies, symbol AAH on Toronto, develops and markets products and systems for accessing communication networks, including the Internet. Its technology is centered around business telephone systems, and includes products that integrate traditional and mobile phones. Aastra is one of the aggressive stock market picks we analyze in our Stock Pickers Digest newsletter. The company reports that its sales fell 4.9%, in the three months ended March 31, 2011, to $162.7 million from $171.1 million a year earlier. Earnings fell sharply, to $200,000, or $0.01 a share, from $4.1 million, or $0.29 a share, a year earlier. The earnings decline resulted from foreign-exchange losses of $1.9 million in the latest quarter, mainly due to continued weakness in the euro and U.S. dollar. In addition, the company recorded a gain of $2.7 million on the sale of a product line in the first quarter of 2010. Aastra gets three quarters of its sales from Europe. The weaker European economy has hurt demand for the company’s products, and forced it to cut its prices. Aastra needs a sustained European economic recovery to show significantly higher sales and earnings. Aastra holds cash of $83.3 million, or $5.91 a share, and has no long-term debt. If you invest in aggressive stock market picks like Aastra, you should have a subscription to Stock Pickers Digest. What’s more, you can get the latest issue absolutely free. Click here to learn how.

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Jim Bates

Jim is an associate editor at TSI Network. He is the lead reporter and analyst for The Successful Investor and Wall Street Stock Forecaster and a member of the Investment Planning Committee. Jim has held the Chartered Financial Analyst designation since 1992 and spent more than a decade at the Financial Post DataGroup before joining TSI Network. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto.

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