CenturyLink (CTL) is an integrated telecommunications company that offers a full range of wired telecom products and services to its customers in 33 states across the country. The stock has traded in a relatively narrow range over the past 52-weeks, between $31 and $43, and it currently trades at around $38. The company currently boasts a dividend yield of 7.5%. Even without the dividend, I believe the stock is a buy. With the dividend, I think it’s a screaming buy.

I’ll take one of those, and one of those, oh and I gotta have one of those too…

In 2010 CenturyLink acquired its huge rival Qwest for more than $12 billion. Due to regulatory reviews, the deal took nearly a year to close, finally closing in April of 2011. A few weeks later, CenturyLink then bought Savvis for $2.5 billion. In 2009, Embarq and CenturyTel merged in an $11.6 billion to form the new company, CenturyLink. So we can safely say that this is a management team that is not afraid to pull the trigger on large deals.

The above mentioned deals along with smaller ones have led to enormous growth for CenturyLink. In 2009 the company had just under $5 billion in total revenue. By 2011 that figure had increased to more than $15 billion. The revenue growth has trickled down to the bottom line, which has allowed the company to meet its lofty dividend yield and also pushed the share price from around $28 at the start of 2009 to $38 today.To continue reading, click here.