Top 10 Paper Companies To Watch In Right Now

Top 10 Paper Companies To Watch In Right Now: CenturyLink Inc.(CTL)

CenturyLink, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated communications company. The company provides a range of communications services, including voice, Internet, data, and video services in the continental United States. Its services include local exchange and long distance voice telephone services, as well as enhanced voice services, such as call forwarding, caller identification, conference calling, voicemail, selective call ringing, and call waiting; wholesale local network access services; and data services, including high-speed Internet access services, data transmission services over special circuits and private lines, and switched digital television services, as well as special access and private line services. The company also offers fiber transport, competitive local exchange carrier, security monitoring, and other communications, as well as professional and business information services. In addition, it provides other related services, such as leasing, selling, installing, and maintaining customer premise telecommunications equipment and wiring; payphone services; and network database services, as well as participates in the publication of local telephone directories. Further, the company offers printing, direct mail services, and cable television services; and wireless broadband Internet access services and satellite television services. As of December 31, 2010, it operated approximately 6.5 million telephone access lines. CenturyLink, Inc was founded in 1968 and is based in Monroe, Louisiana.

Advisors' Opinion:

• [By Mike Deane]

  CenturyLink, Inc. (CTL) announced its third quarter earnings after the bell on Wednesday, with core revenues tumbling 1% from last year’s Q3 figure.

  CTL Earnings In Brief

  -The company announced operating revenues of $4.52 billion, which was slightly above the analyst consensus of $4.51 billion.
  -The company&! #8217;s adjusted earnings came in at $375 million, or 63 cents per share; this is in line with analysts’ EPS estimates.
  -CTL gave EPS guidance for the fourth quarter of 55 cents to 60 cents, which is below the 63 cents that analysts are expecting.
  -Q4 guidance for revenue is in the range of $4.5 billion to $4.55 billion, which is in line with analysts’ views.

  CEO Commentary

  Glen F. Post III, the CEO and president of CenturyLink, had the following to say about the company’s quarterly results:

  “Overall, we continue to perform well with particular strength in our Business segment where sustained demand for high-bandwidth services and solid sales momentum continue to drive strong results.Despite this overall solid operating performance in the third quarter, there was a special item which significantly impacted ourfinancial resultsfor the quarter. We were required, under GAAP, to recognize a non-cash $1.1 billion impairment to the goodwill assigned to our Data Hosting segment. While we continue to be optimistic and encouraged about the future growth potential and value of our Data Hosting business, we are not currently achieving the forecasted growth and cash flows we originally projected.As part of our accounting valuation process, past performance was a factor in the development of growth projections for our Data Hosting business in future periods.”

  No Mention of Dividend

  CTL did not mention its dividend in the quarterly report, and last paid a dividend on September 19. Look for CTL to declare a dividend in mid-November. The company’s last dividend mov

• [By Ong Kang Wei]

  For example, Digital Realty (DLR) is the undoubted leader in the data storage industry, with a market cap of $8.3B. Its other three competitors, DuPont Fabros (DFT), CoreSite Realty (COR) and CyrusOne (CONE), have market caps of $1.5B, $930M and $430M respectively. In addition, with the level of complexity involving Digital's business making ! it immens! ely difficult for companies to operate data centre facilities, the company is in a good position for future growth. The company also has a wide network of 595 tenants (significantly more than other competitors), including CenturyLink (CTL), AT&T and Morgan Stanley (MS). This further secures its long term business prospects and also its dominance over its competitors.

• [By Jon C. Ogg]

  CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) is losing one less adversarial call in a controversial stock. Nomura has raised its rating up to Neutral from Reduce now that shares have come down to within about 1.5% of a 52-week low.

• [By Muhammad Bazil]

  Windstream has the highest debt/equity ratio of all direct competitors, as well as from the industry. Companies like Verizon (VZ) and CenturyLink (CTL), have a debt to equity ratio which is slightly above the industry average of 0.92, while AT&T (T) has a debt/equity ratio of 0.88, which is lower than the industry average. A debt/equity ratio demonstrates how many times a company's long-term debt exceeds its equity. A higher proportion of debt compared to equity leads to higher volatility in earnings and increases the probability that a company may default on debt due to higher financial leverage. Given that Windstream has been very acquisitive over the past few years, the financial risk is fairly explained by the company's inability to increase its profits through debt financing. However, the ratio is extremely high.

source from Top Penny Stocks For 2015:http://www.seekpennystocks.com/top-10-paper-companies-to-watch-in-right-now.html