Updating Our Income Stocks AT&T Inc., Buckeye Partners L.P. and Newell Rubbermaid Inc

Article Excerpt

AT&T INC. $28 (New York symbol T) earned $0.55 a share in the third quarter of 2008, up 10.0% from $0.50 a year earlier. Most of that gain was due to strong demand for Apple’s iPhone and high-speed Internet services. If you exclude costs related to acquisitions and other unusual items, earnings per share fell 5.6% to $0.67 from $0.71. Revenue grew 4.0%, to $31.3 billion from $30.1 billion. Buy. BUCKEYE PARTNERS L.P. $35 (New York symbol BPL) has raised its quarterly distribution rate by 1.4%, from $0.8625 a unit to $0.875. The new annual rate of $3.50 yields 10.0%. Buckeye’s recent acquisitions of natural gas storage terminals cut its reliance on its traditional gasoline and jet fuel pipelines. The new operations should also help it keep raising its distributions. Buy. NEWELL RUBBERMAID INC. $12 (New York symbol earned $0.36 a share before one-time items in the third quarter of 2008, down 30.8% from $0.52 a year earlier. Most of the drop…