CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) was downgraded by research analysts at TheStreet from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Tuesday.

The analysts wrote, “CenturyLink (CTL) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a buy with a ratings score of B . The company’s strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its compelling growth in net income, reasonable valuation levels, expanding profit margins, good cash flow from operations and growth in earnings per share. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had lackluster performance in the stock itself.”

CenturyLink opened at 34.39 on Tuesday. CenturyLink has a 1-year low of $32.05 and a 1-year high of $43.43. The stock’s 50-day moving average is currently $37.. The company has a market cap of $21.522 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.51.

CenturyLink last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 13th. The company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.68 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $4.58 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.58 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.55 earnings per share. CenturyLink’s revenue was down 1.5% compared to the same quarter last year. CenturyLink has set its Q1 guidance at $0.67-0.72 EPS and its FY13 guidance at $2.50-2.70 EPS. On average, analysts predict that CenturyLink will post $2.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Analysts at RBC Capital cut their price target on shares of CenturyLink from $44.00 to $34.00 in a research note to investors on Tuesday, February 19th. They now have a “sector perform” rating on the stock. Separately, analysts at Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on shares of CenturyLink from $45.00 to $40.00 in a research note to investors on Friday, February 15th. Finally, analysts at Argus downgraded shares of CenturyLink from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note to investors on Friday, February 15th.

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

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Friday, March 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.54 per share. This represents a $2.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.28%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, March 7th.

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.

To view TheStreet’s full report, visit www.thestreetratings.com