This high dividend still looks safe

Article Excerpt

BELL ALIANT INC. $27 (Toronto symbol BA, Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.0; Dividend yield: 7.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bellaliant.ca) sells telephone and Internet services to 2.8 million customers in Atlantic Canada, as well as rural parts of Ontario and Quebec. The company also sells wireless services through an alliance with BCE. Sales of the company’s Internet and TV services are rising. That’s offsetting lower sales from its local and long-distance telephone operations. In the three months ended June 30, 2011, Bell Aliant earned $0.43 a share (the company did not provide comparable year-earlier figures, because it was an income trust). However, free cash flow per share (cash flow minus capital expenditures) rose 5.1%, to $0.83 from $0.79. That should let Bell Aliant keep paying quarterly dividends of $0.475 a share (for an annualized yield of 7.0%). Bell Aliant is a buy. buy…