BCE Inc.
Toronto symbol BCE, provides local and long distance telephone services in Ontario and Quebec. It also operates a nationwide wireless service.
: Building on strategic acquisitions and a strong financial position, we see Metro Inc. as a top growth stock among Canada’s consumer giants.
CAE INC. $14 (www.cae.com) has won several contracts for flightsimulators and related equipment from airlines in China, SouthKorea, Russia and the U.S. In all, these deals are worth $130million, or 6% of the company’s $2.2 billion of annual revenue. CAEhas now sold 15 flight simulators in its 2016 fiscal year, whichbegan April 1, 2015, after selling 41 in fiscal 2015. The stock is our#1 buy for 2015. BCE INC. $54 (www.bce.ca) recently started offering tri-band LTEadvanced (LTE-A) service, which is 1.9 times faster than its mainLTE network, in Halifax, Hamilton, Oakville and Toronto. Fasterwireless service should prompt more of its subscribers to upgradeto smartphones, which generate higher profits than regularcellphones. Best Buy. ENCANA CORP. $9.24 (www.encana.com) is selling its Haynesvillenatural gas properties in northern Louisiana. These assetsaccount for 9% of the company’s production but less than 3% of itscash flow. Selling them will let Encana focus on its more profitableproperties (two in Canada and two in the U.S.), which producelarge amounts of oil and natural gas liquids, such as propane andbutane. That cuts the company’s reliance on natural gas. Buy.
BMO S&P/TSX Laddered Preferred Share Index ETF, $10.93, symbol ZPR on Toronto (Units outstanding: 90.6 million; Market cap: $990.3 million; www.etfs.bmo.com), holds Canadian floating-rate preferred shares. Issuers include Bank of Montreal, Enbridge, BCE, TransCanada and Canadian Utilities. The fund’s MER is 0.45%, and it currently yields 4.9%. Note that the dividends you receive from this fund benefit from the Canadian dividend tax credit. Floating-rate preferred shares pay dividends that fluctuate with changes in interest rates. The dividend rate may range from 50% to 100% of (usually) the prime bank rate. As interest rates rise, so do floating-preferred dividend yields....
BCE INC. $52.87 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 848.1 million; Market cap: $44.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.0%; www.bce.ca) has sold its 15% stake in the Globe and Mail newspaper to Woodbridge Co., the private firm controlled by the Thomson family. Woodbridge now owns 100% of the Globe. The company didn’t say how much it received, but the sale will let it focus on its main media businesses, including CTV Television, specialty channels, radio stations and their related websites. In the second quarter of 2015, the media division’s earnings rose 2.4% from a year earlier and accounted for 9.8% of BCE’s total....
Building profits with its financial information products since the crisis of 2008, Thomson-Reuters remains one of our top dividend stocks.
Successful expansion in Ireland is just one reason Great-West Lifeco gets our nod as one of Canada’s top financial blue chip stocks.
MANITOBA TELECOM $28.80 (Toronto symbol MBT; Shares outstanding: 78.9 million; Market cap: $2.3 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 4.5%; www.mts.ca) gets 60% of its revenue from its MTS division, which has 1.3 million TV, telephone and wireless users in Manitoba. The other 40% comes from Allstream, which sells phone and Internet services to businesses across Canada.
In May 2015, the company completed a strategic review of its operations. As a result, it now plans to cut 25% of Allstream’s workforce and reduce the subsidiary’s capital spending by 20% to 30% in 2015. These moves should save Manitoba Telecom $50 million annually by the end of 2016.
In addition, the company will contribute $120 million to its underfunded employees’ pension plan, eliminating the need for additional payments over the next two years. It has also cut its dividend by 23.5%: the new annual rate of $1.30 a share yields 4.5%.
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In May 2015, the company completed a strategic review of its operations. As a result, it now plans to cut 25% of Allstream’s workforce and reduce the subsidiary’s capital spending by 20% to 30% in 2015. These moves should save Manitoba Telecom $50 million annually by the end of 2016.
In addition, the company will contribute $120 million to its underfunded employees’ pension plan, eliminating the need for additional payments over the next two years. It has also cut its dividend by 23.5%: the new annual rate of $1.30 a share yields 4.5%.
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BCE INC. $54.16 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 847.9 million; Market cap: $45.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.8%; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest provider of telephone, Internet and wireless services. It also offers satellite and Internet TV across the country.
In the three months ended June 30, 2015, BCE’s earnings per share rose 6.1%, to $0.87 from $0.82 a year earlier. Revenue increased 2.0%, to $5.33 billion from $5.22 billion.
BCE gained 22,110 wireless subscribers, net of losses, in the latest quarter. It signed up 61,033 new users under long-term contracts, up 72.5% from a year earlier. That’s important, as these customers tend to use smartphones, which generate higher monthly fees than regular cellphones.
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In the three months ended June 30, 2015, BCE’s earnings per share rose 6.1%, to $0.87 from $0.82 a year earlier. Revenue increased 2.0%, to $5.33 billion from $5.22 billion.
BCE gained 22,110 wireless subscribers, net of losses, in the latest quarter. It signed up 61,033 new users under long-term contracts, up 72.5% from a year earlier. That’s important, as these customers tend to use smartphones, which generate higher monthly fees than regular cellphones.
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ENBRIDGE INC., $52.32, Toronto symbol ENB, continues to move ahead with the major reorganization it announced in December 2014. The company plans to transfer its pipelines to 19.9%-owned affiliate Enbridge Income Fund Holdings Inc. (Toronto symbol ENF). This company owns 42% of Enbridge Income Fund (Enbridge Inc. owns the remaining 58%), which holds a variety of businesses, including oil and gas pipelines and solar and wind farms. Under the proposal, Enbridge will transfer pipelines that pump oil sands crude to the U.S., along with wind farms in Alberta and Quebec, to Enbridge Income Fund....