Topic: Dividend Stocks

Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. $29 – Toronto symbol MBT

MANITOBA TELECOM SERVICES INC. $29 (Toronto symbol MBT; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 78.9 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 4.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.mtsallstream.com) has expanded its recent restructuring plan, under which it is cutting 25% of its Allstream subsidiary’s workforce and lowering this business’s capital spending by 20% to 30%. Allstream sells phone and Internet services to companies across Canada. Manitoba Telecom now aims to improve the performance of its MTS division, which has 1.3 million phone, wireless and TV customers in Manitoba. The company will cut jobs and capital spending at MTS and use some of the savings to improve its customer service and billing processes. Restructuring MTS should cut Manitoba Telecom’s annual costs by up to $25 million. To put that in context, it earned $26.7 million, or $0.34 a share, in the third quarter of 2015. Manitoba Telecom is a hold.

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