Small phone company expands again

Article Excerpt

WINDSTREAM CORP. $11 (Nasdaq symbol WIN; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 483.2 million; Market cap: $5.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.7; Dividend yield: 9.1%; WSSF Rating: Average) has agreed to buy privately held Q-Comm Corp., which has two main businesses: its Norlight subsidiary sells communication services to 5,500 businesses in the U.S. Midwest, and Kentucky Data Link operates a fibre-optic network that covers 22 states. Windstream will pay $782 million in cash, stock and assumed debt for Q-Comm when the deal closes later this year. To put that in context, Windstream earned $79 million, or $0.17 a share, in the three months ended June 30, 2010. This is Windstream’s fifth acquisition in the past year. Its purchases have all been high-quality companies, but expanding by acquisition adds risk. Windstream is a hold. hold…