BCE Inc.

BELL ALIANT INC. $26.76 (Toronto symbol BA; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 7.1%; www.aliant.ca) sells phone and Internet services to 2.5 million customers in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also provides wireless services through an alliance with BCE, which owns 45% of Bell Aliant. The company continues to replace copper wires with fibre optic cable. That’s attracting more highspeed Internet and digital TV customers. Strong demand for these services is also helping offset lower revenue from traditional phone services, which still supply 52% of the company’s revenue. Bell Aliant’s high-speed fibre optic systems now reach 725,000 homes, up from 650,000 at the start of this year. By the end of 2013, it plans to expand its network to 800,000 homes....

BELL ALIANT INC. (Toronto symbol BA; www.aliant.ca) sells phone and Internet services to 2.5 million customers in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec. It also provides wireless services through an alliance with BCE, which owns 45% of Bell Aliant....

More and more, I find that I cringe a little every time an investor tells me that they recognize their current investment approach is not appropriate, but they are not yet ready to switch. With a little probing, these investors usually go on to explain that they have lost too much money with the current approach, and they “can’t afford” to sell out at current prices and convert that paper loss into a real one. Instead, they plan to stick with the current approach for an indefinite period. Sometimes they want to hold on to their current portfolio until they get back to break-even. Others say they’ll be satisfied if the current loss shrinks by, say, half. I recall one time in summer 2000. A friend asked me to have a short chat with a female relative who had just gone through a divorce and had received “a very generous settlement”. He said he didn’t know the details but the lady wanted an outside opinion on what to do with her money....

ENCANA CORP., $19.21, Toronto symbol ECA, rose 3% this week, even though it cut its dividend as part of a major new restructuring plan. Due to depressed natural gas prices, Encana plans to narrow its focus from around 30 properties to five: Montney (B.C.), Duvernay (Alberta), DJ Basin (Colorado), San Juan Basin (New Mexico) and Tuscaloosa Marine Shale (Louisiana). These fields also produce significant amounts of oil and natural gas liquids (NGLs), such as butane and propane, and should last decades. Encana expects oil and NGLs to supply 75% of its cash flow by 2017, up from about 35% today....

BELL ALIANT INC. $26.76 (Toronto symbol BA; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 7.1%; www.aliant.ca) sells phone and Internet services to 2.5 million customers in Atlantic Canada and rural Ontario and Quebec....

BELL ALIANT INC. $26.76 (Toronto symbol BA; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 7.1%; www.aliant.ca) sells telephone services and Internet access to 2.4 million customers in Atlantic Canada and rural parts of Ontario and Quebec. It also provides wireless services through an alliance with BCE.

The company continues to replace its copperwire cables with fibre optic lines. That’s letting it sell more high-speed Internet and digital TV services, which is offsetting falling demand for land lines. (Traditional phones still supply 52% of Bell Aliant’s overall revenue.)

In the three months ended June 30, 2013, revenue rose 0.6%, to $691.8 million from $687.7 million a year ago.
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TELUS CORP., $33.31, Toronto symbol T, rose 3% this week on news that U.S.-based Verizon Communications (New York symbol VZ) is buying the 45% of Verizon Wireless that it does not already own from U.K.-based Vodafone Group (Nasdaq symbol VOD). Verizon is a recommendation of Wall Street Stock Forecaster, our newsletter that focuses on U.S. stocks. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture that sells wireless services to 100.1 million subscribers in the U.S. Verizon is paying $130 billion U.S. for Vodafone’s stake, which is just below its $132.6-billion U.S. market cap (or the total value of all its outstanding shares). Shares of Telus fell from their recent peak of $37.94 on May 22, 2013, to $29.52 on June 27 on fears that Verizon would buy two smaller Canadian wireless carriers, Mobilicity and Wind Mobile, and bid on new wireless frequencies, or spectrum. However, in the wake of the Vodafone deal, Verizon announced that it would not enter Canada’s wireless market at this time....

BELL ALIANT INC. $26.76 (Toronto symbol BA; Shares outstanding: 227.8 million; Market cap: $6.1 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 7.1%; www.aliant.ca) sells telephone services and Internet access to 2.4 million customers in Atlantic Canada and rural parts of Ontario and Quebec....

BCE INC. $44.58 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 775.9 million; Market cap: $34.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 5.2%; www.bce.ca) has gained in response to U.S.-based Verizon Communications’ (New York symbol VZ) announcement that it will not enter the Canadian wireless market right now (see box below).

BCE is Canada’s second-largest wireless carrier, with 7.72 million subscribers....

ROYAL BANK OF CANADA, $64.90, Toronto symbol RY, reported that its earnings rose 11.9% in the three months ended July 31, 2013, to $2.2 billion from $2.0 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 13.2%, to $1.46 from $1.29, on fewer shares outstanding. These figures exclude unusual items, such as a $90-million tax refund in the latest quarter. On that basis, Royal’s earnings beat the consensus forecast of $1.38 a share. However, the bank was forced to write down the value of certain securities it holds, which cut its revenue by 6.9%, to $7.2 billion from $7.8 billion. The bank continues to see strong loan demand at its retail banking operations in Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean. This division’s earnings, which accounted for 57% of Royal’s total, rose 7.1%....