Updating BCE INC., BELL ALIANT INC. and FORTIS INC.

Article Excerpt

BCE INC. $39 (www.bce.ca) earned $0.93 a share in the quarter ended September 30, 2011, up 14.8% from $0.81 a year earlier. That’s partly due to BCE’s April 2011 purchase of CTVglobemedia, the private company that owns CTV Television and other media properties. Strong demand for wireless services and its new Internet-based TV service also spurred results. Best Buy. BELL ALIANT INC. $28 (www.aliant.ca) continues to benefit from its investments in its high-speed Internet networks in Atlantic Canada. As a result, earnings per share in the third quarter of 2011 improved to $0.41 from a loss of $0.01 a year earlier. Buy. FORTIS INC. $33 (www.fortisinc.com) earned $0.31 a share in the third quarter of 2011. However, if you exclude a break-up fee that Fortis received only because a Vermont electricity distributor accepted a competing takeover offer, per-share earnings would have fallen by 3.8%, to $0.25 from $0.26 a year earlier. Hold. Hold…