Bank of America reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) in a report issued on Wednesday. They currently have a $38.00 target price on the stock.

“We view yield-based wireline stocks as the equivalent of equity bonds, where the required return (yield) is a function of relative risk (FCF payout ratio). Within this framework, CTL screens positively among yield stories, at a 6.7% yield from a 44% 2014E payout ratio. Our PO, which has an assumed yield of 5.7%, reflects the company’s improving top-line trajectory and greater-than-average dividend coverage.,” the firm’s analyst commented.

Shares of CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) traded down 1.01% during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $34.40. CenturyLink has a one year low of $32.05 and a one year high of $43.43. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $37.1. The company has a market cap of $21.528 billion and a P/E ratio of 27.80.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.22%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 7th.

A number of other firms have also recently commented on CTL. Analysts at TheStreet downgraded shares of CenturyLink from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note to investors on Monday.

Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating, nine have issued a hold rating, two have issued an underweight rating, and two have assigned a sell rating to the company’s stock. The stock has a consensus rating of hold and a consensus price target of $36.11.

CenturyLink, Inc. (CenturyLink) provides a range of communications services. Its communications services include local and long-distance, network access, private line (including special access), public access, broadband, data, managed hosting (including cloud hosting), colocation, wireless and video services.

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