Growth ahead for MBT

Article Excerpt

MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC. $29.86 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 64.7 million; Market cap: $1.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 5.7%; www.mts.ca) gets 53% of its revenue from its MTS division, which mainly sells traditional and wireless telephone services to consumers in Manitoba. The remaining 47% comes from its Allstream division, which sells communication services to businesses across Canada. Manitoba Tel continues to cuts its costs, mostly through layoffs. So far, this restructuring has cut its annual costs by $34.4 million. Even with these savings, the company’s earnings per share before one-time items fell 23.5% in 2010, to $2.02 from $2.64. Revenue fell 1.9%, to $1.78 billion from $1.82 billion. However, steady investments in network upgrades should spur growth. As well, free cash flow (cash flow minus capital expenditures) was $193.2 million in 2010. That should let it invest in new projects and keep paying its current 5.7% dividend yield. At this rate, dividends will total $111 million in 2011. The stock…