Strong wireless demand buoys BCE

Article Excerpt

BCE INC. $59 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 870.7 million; Market cap: $51.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 4.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) completed its acquisition of Manitoba Telecom Services in March 2017. It paid $3.9 billion, including Manitoba Telecom’s debt of $972 million. Due to the purchase, BCE’s revenue in the second quarter of 2017 rose 6.7%, to $5.7 billion from $5.3 billion a year earlier. The company continues to spend heavily on its wireless and high-speed Internet services. As a result, earnings in the quarter fell 3.9%, to $792 million from $824 million. BCE issued shares as part of the Manitoba Telecom purchase, which is why per-share earnings fell 6.4%, to $0.88 from $0.94. BCE’s network improvements continue to pay off. It signed 88,611 wireless customers to long-term contracts (net of cancellations) in the latest quarter. That beat the consensus forecast of 70,000 additions. BCE is a buy. …