BCE Inc.

MOLSON COORS CANADA INC. $70 (www.molsoncoors.com) is a hold. Molson’s sales in the quarter ended March 31, 2021, fell 9.7%, to $1.90 billion from $2.10 billion a year earlier (all amounts except share price in U.S. dollars). That’s mainly because many bars and restaurants remain closed due to COVID-19....

INNERGEX RENEWABLE ENERGY INC. $21 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol INE; High-Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 174.6 million; Market cap: $3.7 billion; Dividend yield 3.4%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Above Average; www.innergex.com) operates 37 hydroelectric plants, 32 wind farms and six solar power fields.


With the April 2020 payment, the company increased its quarterly dividend by 2.9%, to $0.18 a share from $0.175....

BCE may have disappointed some aggressive investors in the past five years—it’s now roughly in the middle of its $50 to $65 price range for that period. However, income-seekers are no doubt pleased at the rise in its dividend, from $2.60 a share in 2015 to the current 2021 rate of $3.50, in the midst of an historic depression in bond interest rates and other sources that investors rely on for income.

While BCE’s payout has climbed, the company and its industry have made fundamental progress that’s likely to pay off with substantial gains in the next five years.

We’re used to—and quite happy with—the variable performance we’ve received over the years from BCE....

MOLSON COORS CANADA INC. $60 (www.molsoncoors.com) is a hold. Many bars and restaurants remain closed or continue to operate at reduced capacity due to COVID-19. Molson’s sales in the quarter ended December 31, 2020, fell 7.7%, to $2.29 billion from $2.49 billion a year earlier (all amounts except share price in U.S....

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $76.98 (Toronto symbol BNS; Shares outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $92.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.7%; www.scotiabank.com) is Canada’s third-largest bank.


Thanks to an improving economic outlook, the bank is reversing some of the provisions it booked to cover bad loans during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.


In the quarter ended January 31, 2021, Bank of Nova Scotia set aside $764 million to cover future loan losses....

BCE INC. $54.88 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares o/s: 904.3 million; Market cap: $49.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Divd. yield: 6.1%) is Canada’s largest traditional telephone service provider. It also has 3.66 million high-speed Internet users and 2.74 million TV subscribers....

BCE INC. $55 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 904.3 million; Market cap: $49.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 6.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) is expanding the availability of its wireless home Internet service to households in rural locations and smaller towns....

BCE and Telus are high-quality firms with businesses well-prepared to withstand the COVID-19 slowdown.


Longer term, the recent launch of their new ultrafast 5G wireless networks provides strong growth prospects and should boost their cash flow to pay for dividend increases.


BCE INC....

Growth stocks can be riskier than well-established firms, but the best of them often make good long-term investments. They may be well-known stars or quiet gems, but they do share one common attribute: they grow at a faster-than-average rate within their industry, or within the market as a whole, for years or decades.


Here we look at two ETFs that select growth stocks from the U.S....

COVID-19 has helped spur demand for BCE’s Internet services as more people work from home, but it has also hurt ad revenue at its media outlets. We’re confident the company’s profits will start moving up again, particularly as more wireless users upgrade to its new 5G service.


BCE INC....