Growth Services Buoy Manitoba Tel

Article Excerpt

MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC. $43 (Toronto symbol MBT; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 64.6 million; Market cap: $2.8 billion; SI Rating: Average) now gets over 44% of its revenue from its growth services, which include wireless, high-speed Internet access and digital TV services. That’s up from about 40% a year earlier. Strong demand for growth services helped offset lower revenue from local and long distance telephone service in the latest quarter. Consequently, overall revenue grew just 0.8%, to $479.9 million from $475.9 million a year earlier. Earnings before one-time items rose 1.4%, to $47.8 million or $0.74 a share from $47.2 million or $0.73 a share. Manitoba Tel’s latest restructuring plan has cut its annual expenses by $22.4 million so far in 2008. That should help it keep paying its $2.60 dividend, which yields 6.0%. Manitoba Tel is a buy. buy…