For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 29, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Qwest Communications (Q), Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ) and Sprint Nextel (S).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s AnalystBlog:

Qwest Meets, Boosts Outlook

Qwest Communications (Q) continues to invest in building necessary infrastructure to boost network capacity and availability. The company is devoting a major portion of the overall CapEx in expanding its fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) network capacity to increase broadband network performance. FTTN deployments reached over 3 million homes with

...

Qwest Communications (Q) has announced third-quarter 2009 earnings with reported earnings per share (EPS) of 8 cents matching both the Zacks Consensus Estimate and the year-ago quarter EPS. Net income declined 6.2% year over year to $136 million on lower revenues as erosion in legacy landline business continues. Operating revenue declined 9.6% from the prior-year quarter to $3.05 billion, primarily due to lower voice service revenue as consumers continue to disconnect their landline services. Qwest reported healthy growth in Internet revenue in the quarter, driven by respectable broadband customer growth. However, voice service revenue declined due to access line erosion. Results by Segment Business Markets Revenue from the business market segment declined 1% year over year to $1 billion due to declines across legacy voice and data businesses. The segment contributed 33.8% of the group revenue for the quarter. Driven by growth in ...

Qwest Communications (Q) announced yesterday the discountinuation of its wireless operation (Qwest Wireless) effective October 31, 2009. The Denver-based telecom operator has reportedly started to circulate a 60-day notice to its susbsribers to migrate to alternative service providers. Customers can switch networks without paying any contract termination fees while retaining there existing contact numbers. Since 2004, Qwest has been marketing Sprint Nextel’s (S) products and services under its own brand by operating as a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) on Sprint’s CDMA wireless network and recognized revenue on gross basis.   However, the company ended its partnership with Sprint (effective February 2009) and entered into a five-year agreement with Verizon (VZ) in May 2008. Under this new arrangement, Qwest started reselling Verizon Wireless’s products and services (under the Verizon brand) from the third-quarter 2008 and books revenue on net basis. The company is currently ...