Mitel is the better bargain right now

Article Excerpt

MITEL NETWORKS $11.35 (Toronto symbol MNW; TSINetwork Rating: Extra Risk) (613-592-2122; www.mitel.ca; Shares outstanding: 99.9 million; Market cap: $1.1 billion; No dividends paid) has reported its third quarter of results that include Aastra Technologies, a Stock Pickers Digest recommendation that Mitel acquired in a friendly takeover on January 31, 2014. In the latest quarter, Mitel’s revenue jumped 101.2%, to $272.4 million from $135.0 million a year ago (all figures except share price in U.S. dollars). Most of the increase came from Aastra. Without one-time items, earnings gained 134.6%, to $19.0 million from $8.1 million. However, earnings per share rose just 28.6%, to $0.18 from $0.14, as the company issued new shares to pay for Aastra. 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. To that end, Mitel recently offered to buy…