Earnings should rebound in 2024

Article Excerpt

TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $14 is still a buy. Canada’s largest commercial printing company (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Cyclical-Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 86.6 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; Dividend yield: 6.4%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.tctranscontinental.com) last raised your dividend with the April 2020 payment. Investors now receive $0.225 a share, up 2.3% from $0.22. The current annual rate of $0.90 yields a high 6.4%. Transcontinental’s overall revenue in its fiscal 2023 second quarter, ended April 30, 2023, rose 4.4%, to $747.2 million from $715.5 million a year earlier. The higher revenues are largely due to recent acquisitions and favourable currency exchange rates. However, higher interest and operating costs cut earnings per share by 6.3%, to $0.45 from $0.48. The company’s earnings for all of fiscal 2023 will probably fall about 14% to $1.89 a share. However, a cost-cutting plan should lift earnings to $2.07 a share in fiscal 2024. The stock trades at just 6.8 times that 2024 estimate. Transcontinental is a buy. buy. …