Windstream expands in North Carolina

Article Excerpt

WINDSTREAM CORP. $9.62 (New York symbol WIN; Income Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 436.7 million; Market cap: $4.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; WSSF Rating: Average) will buy privately held Lexcom Inc., which sells telephone and cable services to over 23,000 customers in Lexington, North Carolina. The deal should close by the end of the year. Windstream will pay $141 million for Lexcom. That’s 1.6 times the $90.8 million, or $0.21 a share, that Windstream earned in the latest quarter. The company feels that combining billing and other back-office functions will let it cut its costs by $5 million a year. Windstream is a buy. buy…