CenturyLink From The Perspective Of A Preferred And Bond Investor: Update [telecom]

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By Norman Roberts

Summary

• CTL over the past year has continued to lose value as it has for the past five years.

• Although not as severely, its Notes I reported about in January also have lost value.

• Consequently, are they a reasonable (or even and a good) buy at their current prices?

If so, which is the best buy?

This review updates my last look at CenturyLink (CTL) as I reported it in my January 18, 2017, article, "CenturyLink: A View From The Perspective Of A Preferred And Bond Investor."

In that article, I concluded:

• CenturyLink has not performed well over the past five years.

• However, I don't believe this large-cap company faces any potential existential threat.

• Therefore, if you are comfortable with the effective yields CTL's notes offer they might be a reasonably safe long-term investment.

Let's see how the commons of CTL have performed over the past year since I wrote the previous article. Because of the greater volume of common shares traded as opposed to the limited liquidity of most preferreds, I find the commons to be a better indicator of a company's overall performance.