BCE INC. $48.33 - Toronto symbol BCE

BCE INC. $48.33 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 775.9 million; Market cap: $37.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.1%; www.bce.ca) earned $540 million, or $0.70 a share, in the three months ended December 31, 2013. That’s up 16.4% from $464 million, or $0.60 a share, a year earlier.

Revenue rose 4.3%, to $5.4 billion from $5.2 billion. In addition to the contribution from recently acquired Astral Media, the company is attracting more wireless, high-speed Internet and digital TV customers. That’s helping offset lower revenue from traditional phones.

The company added 93,700 new wireless subscribers, net of cancellations, in the latest quarter (it now has 7.8 million users across Canada). That’s down 10.8% from a year earlier.

However, 73% of its subscribers under long-term contracts now use smartphones, up from 62%.

That’s good news, because smartphones generate higher fees for BCE than regular cellphones. Average revenue per user rose 2.1%, to $57.92 from $56.72.

BCE also increased its quarterly dividend by 6.0%, to $0.6175 a share from $0.5825. The new annual rate of $2.47 yields 5.1%.

The company expects its full-year 2014 earnings to improve to $3.10 to $3.20 a share from $2.99 last year. The stock trades at 15.3 times the midpoint of that range.

BCE is a buy.

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