Big new market boosts Mitel’s appeal

Article Excerpt

MITEL NETWORKS $10.41 (Toronto symbol MNW; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (613-592-2122; www.mitel.ca; Shares outstanding: 120.0 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion; No dividends paid) develops and markets products centred on business telephone systems, including technology that integrates land lines and mobile phones. The company also offers call centre and videoconferencing products. In the three months ended June 30, 2015, Mitel’s revenue rose slightly, to $292.3 million from $291.7 million a year earlier (all figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars). Earnings per share fell 14.3%, to $0.18 from $0.21, as the stronger dollar lowered the value of the company’s international sales. However, the latest earnings matched the consensus estimate. Mitel is increasingly moving from selling programs that are installed at its customers’ offices to a cloud model, where it keeps its software on its own servers and sells it by subscription. That provides steadier recurring revenue. The company added 235,500 cloud subscriptions in the latest quarter. It now…