Legacy phone business holds back profits

Article Excerpt

WINDSTREAM HOLDINGS INC. $8.19 (Nasdaq symbol WIN; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 596.1 million; Market cap: $4.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.8; Dividend yield: 12.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.windstream.com) gets 70% of its revenue from two fast-growing fields: high-speed Internet and business telecommunications. The company also has 3.3 million regular phone users, mainly in rural parts of the U.S., and demand for this service is falling. In the three months ended September 30, 2013, Windstream’s revenue declined 2.7%, to $1.50 billion from $1.55 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 37.5%, to $0.05 from $0.08. If you exclude costs to integrate an acquisition and a loss on the early retirement of debt, earnings were flat. Windstream is a hold. hold…