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Topic: How To Invest

BELL ALIANT INC. $27.96 – Toronto symbol BA

BELL ALIANT INC. $27.96 (Toronto symbol BA; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.5 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 6.8%; www.aliant.ca) sells phone and Internet services to 2.5 million customers in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also sells wireless services through an alliance with BCE, which owns 44% of Bell Aliant.

The company continues to replace copper wires with fibre optic cable. That’s attracting more highspeed Internet and digital TV customers. Strong demand for these services is also helping offset lower revenue from traditional phone services.

Bell Aliant’s high-speed fibre optic systems now reach 679,000 homes, up from 516,000 a year ago. By the end of 2013, it plans to expand its network to 800,000 homes.

In the three months ended March 31, 2013, Bell Aliant earned $0.43 a share, unchanged from a year earlier. Revenue rose 0.3%, to $683.6 million from $681.8 million.

The company expects to spend $525 million to $575 million on capital upgrades this year. Even after these costs, it will have free cash flow of $500 million to $560 million. That should let it keep paying quarterly dividends of $0.475 a share, for a 6.8% annualized yield.

Bell Aliant is a buy.

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