High yield looks secure

Article Excerpt

BELL ALIANT INC. $28.60 (Toronto symbol BA: Shares outstanding: 228.7 million; Market cap: $9.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 6.6%; www.aliant.ca) continues to upgrade its network to attract new Internet customers, and offset lower revenue from its traditional phone operations. Bell Aliant’s revenue fell 1.0% in the three months ended March 31, 2011, to $681.6 million from $688.7 million a year earlier. Earnings per share fell 24.5%, to $0.37 from $0.49, due to higher pension costs. However, free cash flow (cash flow minus capital expenditures) rose 55.4%, to $88.1 million from $56.7 million. That should let it keep paying quarterly dividends of $0.475 a share (annualized yield of 6.6%). Bell Aliant is a buy. buy…