Network upgrades fuel growth

Article Excerpt

BELL ALIANT INC. $26.76 (Toronto symbol BA; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 7.1%; www.aliant.ca) sells telephone services and Internet access to 2.4 million customers in Atlantic Canada and rural parts of Ontario and Quebec. It also provides wireless services through an alliance with BCE. The company continues to replace its copperwire cables with fibre optic lines. That’s letting it sell more high-speed Internet and digital TV services, which is offsetting falling demand for land lines. (Traditional phones still supply 52% of Bell Aliant’s overall revenue.) In the three months ended June 30, 2013, revenue rose 0.6%, to $691.8 million from $687.7 million a year ago. Earnings fell 10.8%, to $0.66 a share from $0.74. If you exclude unusual items, such as a charge related to an early debt repayment, per-share earnings would have fallen 4.9%, to $0.39 from $0.41. Bell Aliant is a buy. buy…