Transcontinental grows in print and online

Article Excerpt

TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $13 (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 81.0 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.5; Dividend yield: 4.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tctranscontinental.com) is the largest commercial printer in Canada and the fourth-largest in North America. It also publishes newspapers and magazines. Transcontinental also has over 1,000 websites, which supply 16% of its total revenue. These websites will become more important to its growth in the next few years as advertisers spend more on the Internet than print products. The company recently swapped its printing plants in Mexico for six facilities in Canada. If you exclude the contribution from the Mexican plants and other unusual items, such as goodwill writedowns, Transcontinental earned $161.7 million, or $2.00 a share, in its 2011 fiscal year (which ended October 31, 2011). That’s up 3.7% from $155.9 million, or $1.93 a share, in fiscal 2010. Sales rose 0.8%, to $2.04 billion from $2.03 billion. The company continues to benefit from several…