Centurylink, symbol CTL, reported stellar earnings and cash flow after the market closed yesterday. This company continues to impress with it's integration of purchased assets and making those assets contribute to cash flow. We have been pushing this stock since it was in the mid $30's and even now with some of the value gone due to the move up in price it is still a decent value with the safest 7% dividend in the country. Few places now one can find payouts like this with a company that has the ability to pay the cash almost indefinitely. Again this month CTL kept paying off debt with close maturities and lowering the percentage of the cash flow that goes to dividends.
CTL used to raise their dividend annually, but once they bought two large telecom companies in the last decade they stopped that and have been using the cash to pay down debt from the purchases. Frankly we like that as we see the current dividend as rather nice and if you had been like us the move from $35 or so to the now $42 is a nice replacement.
We see no reason to drop this stock from our portfolio at this point forever and would suggest you take a look at this company for a nice income stream, safety of principal, and some capital gains too. No it is not the sweet buy we pointed out back when we called it a "screaming buy", but it still a nice safe place to park some cash.
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