Strong balance sheet a big plus

Article Excerpt

TORSTAR $6.44 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 79.9 million; Market cap: $521.0 million; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 8.2%; www.torstar.com) earned $20.9 million in the three months ended December 31, 2014, up 31.9% from $15.8 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 30.0%, to $0.26 from $0.20, on more shares outstanding. These figures include costs related to job cuts and other measures in response to falling advertising revenue at Torstar’s newspapers. If you disregard unusual items, the company’s per share earnings fell 11.8%, to $0.30 from $0.34. Torstar is debt-free and held cash and investments of $290.2 million, or $3.62 a share, as of December 31, 2014. It continues to pay a quarterly dividend of $0.13125 a share, for a high 8.2% annualized yield. This year, the company plans to spend $13 million to $15 million to develop a new digital version of the Toronto Star for tablet computers. That should help it attract younger readers and spur online…