More cost savings on the way

Article Excerpt

TRANSCONTINENTAL INC. $22 is still a buy for aggressive investors. Canada’s leading commercial printer (Toronto symbol TCL.A; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 87.0 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.tctranscontinental.com) paid $1.7 billion for Chicago-based Coveris Americas in May 2018. Coveris makes plastic packaging at plants in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, New Zealand and China. As a result, packaging now supplies 55% of Transcontinental’s revenue, followed by printing (42%) and media (3%). Since that purchase, the company has realized $20 million U.S. in annual cost savings, and it expects even more savings in 2021. The lower costs helped Transcontinental cut its long-term debt by 42.8%, to $790.4 million (as of October 31, 2020) from $1.39 billion a year earlier. That’s a manageable 42% of its market cap. Transcontinental is a buy. buy…