Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

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Peculiar_Investor
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Peculiar_Investor »

Conrad Black controlled companies also come to mind.

For current and future shareholders, from what I understand of the situation, paying the largese will need to come from future earnings, it is not funded. As a Shaw customer, I'm left to wonder how much of my current/future bill goes to paying these guys?
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by ghariton »

Insomniac wrote:Would like to sell divest myself of Shaw on principle, but cannot without selling the index; one of the disadvantages of passive investing, I suppose. :|
You could always short a number of Shaw shares equivalent to the number you hold indirectly through XIC. From what you tell us, the transaction costs (or spreads) would outweigh any gain you might make. But you would get the psychological satisfaction of having done the right thing...

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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by mpav »

Shaw is a tale of two cities.

If you exclude the compensation, they have been very good/conservative with shareholder money. Organizationally, they are one of the best allocators of capital in the telco space.

Then you look at the proxy, and just say wow....that is a tonne of money they are being paid.

I am a shareholder, and am nervous....but the real test for me is how stupid they get with the (shareholder) money. In the magna case, it was all ego (racetracks anyone?), and at this point I dont see that with the Shaw family.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Shakespeare »

The problem is whether, in the future if things go poorly, they will be able to limit their greed.

ISTM that a culture of putting themselves first exists. Such a culture is difficult to change.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Insomniac »

ghariton wrote: You could always short a number of Shaw shares equivalent to the number you hold indirectly through XIC. From what you tell us, the transaction costs (or spreads) would outweigh any gain you might make. But you would get the psychological satisfaction of having done the right thing...

George
I have taken a more direct action. I have cancelled the TV, so that's about $40 a month that they are not getting from me! They are still my ISP, but I am paying them half what I used to. For TV, I can pick up a couple of local channels via an antenna and download anything else I want to watch.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Shakespeare »

What's going on with this? 52-week low today.
Sic transit gloria mundi. Tuesday is usually worse. - Robert A. Heinlein, Starman Jones
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by $seeker »

Another Dogs of TSX @ 52 week low.
Has it been profitable to buy at these times or will it be painful like TA?
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Shakespeare »

Little article in G&M today that says J.R. Shaw (senior, the founder) has been buying:

Shaw founder adds to holdings - The Globe and Mail
Meanwhile, company founder JR Shaw has added to his already substantial holdings. On April 23 he bought 100,000 non-voting class B shares at $19.53. On April 25, he picked up another 4,900 shares at $19.52.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Mike Schimek »

What's going on with this? 52-week low today.
I think the business models of the telcos is obsolete. Worse, their balance sheets are bloated with debt. I'd tell anyone who chooses to listen to save some potential pain and get out.

Telcos, shaw, bell, telus, (same for telefonica and other internationals, etc)

The new guard are the techs like Apple, Microsoft, Nokia, (RIMM before) etc. The communications industry has innovated and evolved. The techs have no debt, massive amounts of cash, are at the forefront of innovation and absurdly (nothing new here with mr. market) sell for similar P/Es as the dinosaur telcos.

Those are my thoughts from when I owned and researched Apple.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Shakespeare »

Purchase of Additional Shares of Shaw Communications Inc. by the Shaw Family - Yahoo! Finance
JR Shaw, of Suite 900, 630 - 3rd Avenue SW, Calgary, Alberta T2P 4L4, completed the purchase today of an additional 50,000 Class B Non-Voting Participating Shares of the Company ("Class B Shares") on the Toronto Stock Exchange for investment purposes at an average price of $19.15 per share, bringing his total purchase of Class B Shares since mid-April to 300,000 shares. Mr. Shaw also advised the Company that he may continue his practice of purchasing additional shares of the Company on a regular basis.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Arby »

I'm perplexed about Shaw. I originally bought it a few years ago for it's solid and growing dividend. I sold half of my position in Shaw last year, following a pretty good run-up in price. The price has continued to increase since I sold. I sold because I had concerns about Shaw's diminishing subscriber base, and the competitive impact of internet-based video streaming services such as Netflix. Shaw has managed to continue to grow their EPS, even with a diminishing subscriber base. And now Shaw (and Rogers) have launched their own streaming service (Showmi). I'm not sure if I should dump my remaining shares. Any thoughts on Shaw?
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by westcoastfella »

Arby wrote:I'm perplexed about Shaw. I originally bought it a few years ago for it's solid and growing dividend. I sold half of my position in Shaw last year, following a pretty good run-up in price. The price has continued to increase since I sold. I sold because I had concerns about Shaw's diminishing subscriber base, and the competitive impact of internet-based video streaming services such as Netflix. Shaw has managed to continue to grow their EPS, even with a diminishing subscriber base. And now Shaw (and Rogers) have launched their own streaming service (Showmi). I'm not sure if I should dump my remaining shares. Any thoughts on Shaw?
I am also perplexed - I bought in about 2 years ago, and sold out of Shaw about 9 months ago, for the same reasons as you. But as you say, they have continued to grow their EPS despite diminishing subscriber base and increasing competition from a variety of angles, and their share price has continued to go up. A look at recent income statements indicates that they have been growing their gross and net income overall. I had thought that share buybacks might be the reason for a rise in EPS, but their shares outstanding has also steadily increased in recent years. They are simply earning more money.

Their most recent quarterly report (summary from G&M) indicated increased profits, "helped by lower amortization and interest expenses and overall improvement in costs", as opposed to actual growth in TV subscriber business. This was confirmed later in the report:
Despite the solid earnings, the company reported a drop in subscriptions, particularly among cable and satellite TV subscribers who chose to cut the cord in favour of alternatives like watching television over the Internet.
That being said, there do seem to be some interesting considerations:

1. Even though TV subscription rates fall, their subscription rates for internet service and digital phone continue to rise. Not enough to offset the loss in revenue from TV, but at least some of their business is growing.
2. I like their response to Netflix with Showmi. I don't know how many customers will use it, or how good it will be, but at least its compelling.
3. Although Netflix does cut into their TV subscription numbers, its adoption may actually help their internet subscriber numbers. All Netflix users need a fat internet connection to stream all that content, and Shaw may be able to upsell customers to those fatter pipes with larger monthly data maximums for larger monies. Perhaps even a "netflix premium" for people that want truly dedicated speeds and service?

My 5c FWIW. I still remain out of Shaw for the time being, but do check on it from time to time.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by DenisD »

One reason I will probably stay a Shaw internet subscriber is the Shaw WiFi hotspots. They're widespread in Calgary. Means I hardly ever have to use expensive cell data.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by AltaRed »

That is definitely a plus for us in the West especially. More and more places are installing Shaw hot spots throughout the West. And once a person is bundled, along with a Gateway PVR system, it does not make sense to move on. Whether we go for the new Showmi or not is an open question. We already subscribe to Netflix and there is more on there that we can (and maybe want to) watch than we will ever have time for.

I was tempted a few times to invest in Shaw shares but remain loathe to do so due to the Shaws' (Jim and Brad) arrogance on paying themselves so much.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by DenisD »

My chiropractor and my mother's hairdresser both have Shawopen. Don't know about my doctor and dentist.

I remember reading somewhere that Shaw was going to sell bandwidth from their hotspots to the cell phone companies. Don't know if that ever happened.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by AltaRed »

DenisD wrote:My chiropractor and my mother's hairdresser both have Shawopen. Don't know about my doctor and dentist.
I have seen them in a wide range of establishments, e.g. my former dentist in Calgary and my new one in the Okanagan, restaurants, fast food outlets that do not already have their own in-house systems, tire dealers, glass shops, car dealerships.... anywhere people might be passing time. It certainly encourages one to have a Shaw account over the competition, mainly Telus ADSL out here.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Arby »

The analyst from Cannacord has been negative on Shaw for a while (but so far he's been wrong). Cannacord says streaming video services will increase the number of high margin internet subscribers, however Shaw's telco competitors (Telus and MTS) have been capturing a significant and increasing share of those internet subscribers. Cannacord also says Shaw's Wi-Fi strategy will not have any impact on attracting new subscribers or reducing subscriber churn, based on experience from a similar WiFi strategy used by Cablevision in the USA. The anecdotal comments above seem to disagree with Cannacord regarding Shaw's WiFi strategy.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

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Arby wrote:Cannacord also says Shaw's Wi-Fi strategy will not have any impact on attracting new subscribers or reducing subscriber churn, based on experience from a similar WiFi strategy used by Cablevision in the USA. The anecdotal comments above seem to disagree with Cannacord regarding Shaw's WiFi strategy.
That may well be the case for most, but I find it an attractive enough convenience to keep me with Shaw and not considering alternatives. Don't know that it would encourage me to switch to Shaw if I was already elsewhere though (the old don't know if you don't know cliche).
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Insomniac »

Ii don't care about Shaw's Wi-Fi as I can get free Wi-Fi at Tim Hortons.

Best thing in Shaw's favour right now is Telus. If Telus were to improve their service to a decent level, Shaw might be in trouble.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by AltaRed »

Insomniac wrote:Ii don't care about Shaw's Wi-Fi as I can get free Wi-Fi at Tim Hortons.
Which is the case for most fast food places, but it is not much fun being in such places.... and the food, particularly at Timmies, is terrible too. I do tolerate Second Cup the best.

Getting back to Shaw, I will continue to dither about them as an investment opportunity. I already own BCE and Rogers so not sure I want more in this space.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Jo Anne »

AltaRed wrote:
Insomniac wrote:Ii don't care about Shaw's Wi-Fi as I can get free Wi-Fi at Tim Hortons.
Which is the case for most fast food places, but it is not much fun being in such places.... and the food, particularly at Timmies, is terrible too. I do tolerate Second Cup the best.
When we were on vacation this summer, I don't think we were in one restaurant that didn't have Wi-Fi. Tims, McDonalds, A&W, all the coffee places, and all the chains like Perkins, Applebees, Montanas, etc. And a lot of the time you don't even have to go in - just sit in the parking lot.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Taggart »

AltaRed wrote:

Getting back to Shaw, I will continue to dither about them as an investment opportunity. I already own BCE and Rogers so not sure I want more in this space.
I have the Shaw I own allocated to the Consumer Discretionary sector. The same as how Standard & Poor's has allocated this company in the TSX.

I've owned this stock for a few years now. As of today, no plans to sell. I don't listen to future projections about what's going to happen to an industry. Most of the time, I find these predictions don't pan out as expected anyhow. I just take the stance of I don't know and I don't care. I only keep a close eye on what a company does with it's dividend and the payout ratio. Aside, from a quick scan of the financials, not much else.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by kcowan »

I assume that Shomi will appeal to users not on Netflix (right AltaRed?). If so, this will increase the average bandwidth usage. At the same time, it should decrease demand for Cable TV and a PVR. It seems to be a strange offering for Shaw.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by AltaRed »

kcowan wrote:I assume that Shomi will appeal to users not on Netflix (right AltaRed?). If so, this will increase the average bandwidth usage. At the same time, it should decrease demand for Cable TV and a PVR. It seems to be a strange offering for Shaw.
At this time, I cannot imagine wanting Shomi but it will depend on their offerings vis-a-vis Netflix over time. I suspect Shaw (and Rogers) are trying to stem cable subscriber loss that might occur anyway by siphoning off traffic to themselves that would have gone to Netflix. I don't see it as a strange offering. If you cannot beat them, join them.

I think having a PVR is not relevant to whether people want Shomi or Netflix. A PVR captures 'immediate' offerings of things on cable not otherwise available on Shomi or Netflix. IOW, it is still in Shaw's interest for subscribers to have a PVR because then they might subscribe to some of the current movie channels. Shaw is putting all fingers in the dike.
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Re: Shaw Communications (Symbol-SJR.B)

Post by Taggart »

Why Shaw's changes to its executive pension plan don't go far enough

DAVID MILSTEAD
The Globe and Mail
Published Wednesday, Dec. 17 2014, 7:55 PM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Dec. 17 2014, 7:57 PM EST
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