Windstream Corp. (WIN), a leading rural telecom carrier, reported operating results for the third quarter with adjusted earnings per share of 24 cents, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 21 cents. Adjusted EPS excludes one-time items such as restructuring charges, merger and integration costs and non-cash pension expense.   Reported net income of $80 million (18 cents a share) reflects a 24% year-over-year decline on account of lower revenues, which declined 8% year over year to $734 million.  Service revenues fell 5% year over year to $704.9 million while product revenues declined 44% to $29.4 million. Average monthly service revenue per customer remained stable year over year at $79.99. Operating income declined 17% year over year to $225.4 million.   Windstream continues to experience steady decline in its fixed-line business given the rapid customer migration to cellular services. Total access lines declined by roughly 27,000 lines in the quarter

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Thursday October 29, 2009

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Consorteum Holdings Inc. (OTCBB: CSRH) announced that it has proceeded to launch its consumer stored value rebate card. The consumer rebate card program will offer manufacturers and retailers a new way to process mail-in rebates that ensures increased customer loyalty and decreased overhead costs. Consorteum will work directly with manufactures and retailers to reduce the administration costs associated with mail-in rebate programs while providing a new way to increase consumer awareness. Additional revenue and cost-saving opportunities will be

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Windstream Corp.’s (WIN) MACD indicator has crossed over to bullish territory with a reading of 0.0992. The Zacks #2 Rank (“Buy") stock has advanced more than 1% to $8.84 in afternoon trade. The Zacks Consensus Estimate on the company’s full-year earnings has edged up a penny over the past 2 months to 87 cents per share."WIN" Free Stock Analysis: Buy? Sell? Hold?Zacks Investment Research

The first thing we did on our return to the world of markets and money this morning was to read “bond king” Bill Gross’s investment outlook for July. We consider this compulsory reading. Gross, the managing director of PIMCO, is one of the smartest underground investors out there. And his no BS approach to the financial markets is always refreshing.

Notes faithful will recall that last month Gross predicted that the economy is heading for what he calls the “new normal” – “higher savings, lower consumption, and an economic growth rate that staggers forward at a new normal closer to 2% as opposed to 3½%.” And we touched again on Gross’s advice for investors in our Friday issue.

The bottom line for Gross is that there can be no recovery to the “old normal” when one in ten Americans is officially unemployed and consumer spending is in the bin. (Gross points out

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Countless studies demonstrate that dividend-paying stocks outperform non-payers by a wide margin. From 1972 to 2006 dividend-paying stocks returned an average of 10% annually versus 4% for non-dividend payers, according to Ned Davis Research. Going back to 1926, other studies confirm almost half of the S&P 500’s return was due to the dividends paid by the companies in the index.

So, I’ll take Bill Gross’ recommendation one step further. Forget now. Dividend-paying stocks ALWAYS deserve a place in your portfolio.

Yet, in this market, it’s increasingly difficult to find reliable dividend stocks.

“This is going to be the worst [dividend-cutting year] in 50 years,” Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poor’s, predicted in January. So far he’s right with industry titans like General Electric and Dow Chemical announcing cuts.

Keep in mind, Dow Chemical maintained or increased its dividend every year since 1912. That means conditions this year are worse for the company

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Back in January, I advised you to dump everyone’s sweetheart dividend stock, General Electric (NYSE: GE) in favor of TEPPCO Partners (NYSE: TPP). Many balked at the idea. But the results don’t lie…

Year-to-date, General Electric is the worst-performing stock in the Dow, down 22.3%. Meanwhile, TEPPCO is up 69%, including dividends.

(If any of you took me up on my income investment recommendation, e-mail us and let us know how you did at comments@investmentu.com.)

Of course, part of the move higher for TEPPCO can be attributed to news that Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) is buying the company, as I predicted.

For those of you that purchased the stock, I recommend you take profits now. And whatever you do, don’t reinvest them in GE.

GE: Reasons Why It’s Not a Safe Income Investment

My reasons for disliking GE as a safe income investment remain

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Need An Income Investment? Keep Dumping GE and Buy This Stock Instead

by Louis Basenese, Advisory Panelist

Back in January, I advised you to dump everyone’s sweetheart dividend stock, General Electric (NYSE: GE) in favor of TEPPCO Partners (NYSE: TPP).

Many balked at the idea. But the results don’t lie…

Year-to-date, General Electric is the worst-performing stock in the Dow, down 22.3%. Meanwhile, TEPPCO is up 69%, including dividends.

(If any of you took me up on my income investment recommendation, e-mail us and let us know how you did at comments@investmentu.com.)

Of course, part of the move higher for TEPPCO can be attributed to news that Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE: EPD) is buying the company, as I predicted.

For those of you that purchased the stock, I recommend you take profits now. And whatever you do, don’t reinvest them in GE.

GE: Reasons Why

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Windstream Corp. (WIN) announced today that its first-quarter EPS of 24 cents, excluding items, squeezed past the consensus by a penny, although it experienced a 5.6% revenue dip amid economic turmoil.

Sales came in at $755 million, down from $800 million in the prior-year period.

Meanwhile, the company indicated that it expects to generate between $705 million and $775 million in free cash flow during this year, an increase of $20 million from its prior view.

Windstream added about 31,000 new high-speed Internet customers this quarter, which is almost double the previous quarter's levels. With the additions of these new customers, the company now has a total broadband customer base of over 1 million, up nearly 11% from last year.

The company also stated that it added more than 21,000 digital TV customers during the quarter.

The full-year consensus for this Zacks #2 Rank ("Buy") stock is pegged

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CenturyTel Inc. (CTL) will acquire rival Embarq Corp. (EQ) in an $11.6 billion deal that could kick-start a flurry of mergers among rural-regional telephone carriers. The deal should be good for the two companies, said Jeff Kagan, an independent analyst who is well known for his coverage of the telecom sector.

“There has been a lot of talk recently about Embarq wanting to be acquired,” Kagan told MarketWatch.com. “However, the financial crisis that is on the front page every day made finding a partner difficult. That may have lowered the price Embarq hoped to get. CenturyTel saw an opportunity and jumped in to acquire Embarq. Timing was on CenturyTel’s side in this deal.”

The all-stock deal – announced yesterday (Monday) – calls for CenturyTel to pay $5.8 billion for Embarq, and to assume $5.8 billion of that company’s debt, Network World

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CenturyTel Inc. (CTL) will acquire rival Embarq Corp. (EQ) in an $11.6 billion deal that could kick-start a flurry of mergers among rural-regional telephone carriers. The deal should be good for the two companies, said Jeff Kagan, an independent analyst who is well known for his coverage of the telecom sector. “There has been a lot of talk recently about Embarq wanting to be acquired,” Kagan told MarketWatch.com. “However, the financial crisis that is on the front page every day made finding a partner difficult. That may have lowered the price Embarq hoped to get. CenturyTel saw an opportunity and jumped in to acquire Embarq. Timing was on CenturyTel’s side in this deal.” The all-stock deal – announced yesterday (Monday) – calls for CenturyTel to pay $5.8 billion for Embarq, and to assume $5.8 billion of that company’s debt, Network ...