High yields from stable businesses

Article Excerpt

BELL ALIANT INC. $26.63 (Toronto symbol BA; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 7.1%; www.aliant.ca) sells phone and Internet services to 2.5 million customers in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also sells wireless services through an alliance with BCE, which owns 45% of Bell Aliant. The company continues to replace copper wires with fibre optic cable. That’s attracting more highspeed Internet and digital TV customers. Strong demand for these services is also helping offset lower revenue from traditional phone services. Bell Aliant’s high-speed fibre optic systems now reach 650,000 homes. The company plans to increase that to 800,000 by the end of 2012. In 2012, Bell Aliant earned $328.7 million, or $1.43 a share. That’s up 1.9% from $322.6 million, or $1.41 a share, in 2011. Earnings per share rose 0.6%, to $1.71 from $1.70, on more shares outstanding. Revenue fell 0.5%, to $2.76 billion from $2.78 billion, which is…