Torstar lowers its dividend

Article Excerpt

TORSTAR $1.65 (Toronto symbol TS.B; Shares outstanding: 79.9 million; Market cap: $134.8 million; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 6.1%; www.torstar.com) saw its advertising revenue drop 17% in the latest quarter. Its online businesses have also failed to meet expectations. These include its recent purchase of 56% of VerticalScope for $178 million. That firm operates online forums and websites. In the second quarter of 2016, the company’s share of VerticalScope’s losses totalled $17.9 million. That’s partly why Torstar lost $0.13 a share, in the quarter, compared to a profit of $0.14 a year earlier. Revenue fell 9.4% to $196.5 million. The company now plans to spend $10 million in 2016 on the tablet computer version of The Toronto Star. However, the app has struggled to attract users, and Torstar has laid off 50 of 75 workers on the project. Torstar is cutting its quarterly dividend by 61.5%, to $0.025 a share from $0.065. With the depressed stock price, the new annual…