bce

ISHARES S&P/TSX 60 INDEX ETF $21.90 (Toronto symbol XIU; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) is a good low-fee way to buy the top stocks on the TSX. The units are made up of stocks that represent the S&P/TSX 60 Index, which consists of the 60 largest, most heavily traded stocks on the exchange. Expenses are just 0.17% of assets.

The index mostly consists of high-quality companies. However, it must ensure that all sectors are represented, so it holds a few we wouldn’t include.

The index’s top holdings are Royal Bank, 7.8%; TD Bank, 7.1%; Valeant Pharmaceuticals, 5.6%; Bank of Nova Scotia, 5.4%; CN Railway, 4.8%; Suncor Energy, 3.6%; Enbridge, 3.6%; Bank of Montreal, 3.5%; BCE, 3.2%; Manulife Financial, 3.1%; Canadian Natural Resources, 2.9%; Trans- Canada Corp., 2.8%; Brookfield Asset Management, 2.7%; CIBC, 2.6%; and CP Rail, 2.5%.

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When you feel the urge to sell a stock that’s been a strong performer, your “itchy trigger finger” could erase bigger gains in the future.

Exchange traded funds (ETFs) are set up to mirror the performance of a stock market index or sub-index. They hold a more or less fixed selection of securities that represent the holdings that go into the calculation of the index or sub-index. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. That’s different from mutual funds, which you can only buy at the end of the day at a price that reflects the fund’s value at the close of trading. Prices of ETFs are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell them, but their low management fees give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....

SUN LIFE FINANCIAL $39.03 (Toronto symbol SLF; Shares outstanding: 612.7 million; Market cap: $24.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.7%; www.sunlife.ca) sells life insurance, savings, retirement and pension products to individuals and corporations. Sun Life has $734.4 billion of assets under management. It mainly operates in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., but it continues to expand in Asia. In 2013, it sold its riskier, money-losing U.S. annuity business, which sells products that guarantee minimum long-term returns even if markets fall....

BCE INC. $53 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 840.5 million; Market cap: $44.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 4.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) has signed a new deal with Sun Life Financial (Toronto symbol SLF) that will cut some of the risk in its Bell Canada employees’ pension plan.

Retired employees currently receive a monthly payment for the rest of their lives. However, many of these pensioners are living longer than expected, which is increasing BCE’s pension obligations.

Under this new deal, BCE will pay monthly premiums to Sun Life, which will then make monthly payments into the plan for the lifetime of existing pensioners.

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BCE INC. $53 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 840.5 million; Market cap: $44.5 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 4.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) has signed a new deal with Sun Life Financial (Toronto symbol SLF) that will cut some of the risk in its Bell Canada employees’ pension plan. Retired employees currently receive a monthly payment for the rest of their lives. However, many of these pensioners are living longer than expected, which is increasing BCE’s pension obligations. Under this new deal, BCE will pay monthly premiums to Sun Life, which will then make monthly payments into the plan for the lifetime of existing pensioners....

Prompted by an increase in smartphone contracts and success with Fibe TV and Crave TV, BCE Inc. hikes its dividend by 5.3%.

Promoting clean, environmentally sound solutions for office design, DIRTT has a respected CEO but may struggle against strong competition.

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.

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BCE INC. $56 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 840.3 million; Market cap: $47.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.2; Dividend yield: 4.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest telephone provider, with 5.0 million customers in Ontario and Quebec. It also has 2.3 million high-speed Internet users and 2.4 million TV subscribers. This business supplies 46% of BCE’s revenue.

The company also sells wireless services (29% of revenue) to 8.1 million customers across Canada, and its Bell Media segment (13%) owns CTV Television, specialty channels and radio stations.

In November 2014, the company paid $3.95 billion in cash and stock for the 56% of Bell Aliant that it didn’t already own. Bell Aliant, which accounts for the remaining 12% of BCE’s revenue, sells telephone and Internet services to 2.2 million clients in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec.

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