Bezeq Israel Telecom Q4 net profit down 5 percent

TEL AVIV, March 24 (Reuters) - Bezeq Israel Telecom (BEZQ.TA), the country's dominant phone company, said on Tuesday it fourth quarter net profit fell 5 percent on slightly lower revenue.

Bezeq posted a quarterly net profit of 298 million shekels ($74 million), compared with 315 million a year earlier.

Revenue in the quarter slipped to 3.062 billion shekels from 3.12 billion a year ago. Analysts on average expected Bezeq to earn 370 million shekels on revenue of 3.069 billion shekels, according to a Reuters poll of 9 analysts.

The board recommended a dividend payout of 792 million shekels, or 0.3 shekel per share. ($1 = 4.03 shekels) (Reporting by Tova Cohen; Editing by Dan Lalor)