Topic: Growth Stocks

Stock Pickers Digest Hotline – Friday, March 1, 2013

Article Excerpt

AASTRA TECHNOLOGIES, $19.82, symbol AAH on Toronto, develops and markets products and systems for accessing communication networks, including the Internet. Its technology is centred around business telephone systems and includes products that integrate land lines and mobile phones. In the three months ended December 31, 2012, the company’s sales fell 12.3%, to $175.2 million from $199.7 million a year earlier. Sales declined in all regions, including Western Europe, where Aastra gets the majority of its revenue. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange rates, sales declined 7.1% from a year earlier. Earnings per share rose sharply, to $2.42 from $1.30, due to a number of one-time items, including income-tax recoveries. Without those items, Aastra would have earned $1.15 a share in the latest quarter. Aastra holds cash of $107.4 million, or a high $9.10 a share, and has no long-term debt. It spends a high 10% of its revenue on research. The weak European economy has hurt demand for the company’s products and forced…