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Topic: Dividend Stocks

TELUS CORP. $44 – Toronto symbol T

TELUS CORP. $44 (Toronto symbol T; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 611.7 million; Market cap: $26.9 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 3.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.telus.com) is Canada’s third-largest wireless carrier, after BCE and Rogers Communications, with 8.0 million subscribers. Wireless now supplies 54% of Telus’s revenue and 66% of its earnings.

The remaining 46% of revenue and 34% of earnings come from its wireline division, which mainly consists of 3.2 million traditional phone customers in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. This business also includes 1.45 million Internet users and 888,000 TV customers.

Unlike BCE, which has expanded its media businesses in the past few years, Telus has concentrated on improving its wireless and high-speed Internet networks.

Thanks to these upgrades, Telus’s customers spent an average of $64.51 a month on wireless services in the third quarter of 2014, up 3.2% from a year earlier. As well, Telus’s churn rate fell to a record low of 1.25% from 1.36%.

The company continues to expand its health care division, which helps doctors, pharmacies and hospitals convert patient records and other information to electronic formats. This business accounts for just 5% of Telus’s overall revenue, but it’s growing fast.

The company’s earnings will probably rise 7.9%, from $2.41 a share in 2014 to $2.60 in 2015. The stock trades at a reasonable 16.9 times this year’s estimate.

The strong earnings growth is also giving Telus more room to raise its dividend. It recently increased its quarterly payment by 5.3%, to $0.40 a share from $0.38. The new annual rate of $1.60 yields 3.6%. Telus plans to raise its dividend by a further 10% in 2015.

Telus is a buy.

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