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Topic: Growth Stocks

FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS CORP. $4.55 – Nasdaq symbol FTR

FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONS CORP. $4.55 (Nasdaq symbol FTR; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 998.4 million; Market cap: $4.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 8.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.frontier.com) sells phone, Internet and video services to 4.9 million customers in 27 states.

In July 2010, the company purchased Verizon’s telephone businesses in 14 states. In return, Verizon shareholders received 0.24 shares of Frontier for each Verizon share they held.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2012, Frontier’s earnings jumped 228.5% to $67.0 million, or $0.07 a share. A year earlier, it earned $20.4 million, or $0.02 a share. Even if you disregard unusual items, earnings per share would have risen 40.0%. That’s partly because Frontier is selling more Internet and video services. However, it continues to lose traditional phone customers to wireless providers. That’s why its revenue fell 3.0%, to $1.25 billion from $1.3 billion.

The company continues to borrow the cash it needs to upgrade its networks: its long-term debt of $8.3 billion is a high 1.8 times its market cap. However, integrating the Verizon assets has cut its annual costs by $650 million. That should help it pay down its debt and keep paying quarterly dividends of $0.10 a share, for a 8.8% annualized yield. The stock trades at 17.5 times Frontier’s likely 2013 earnings of $0.26 a share.

Frontier Communications is a hold.

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