telus

TELUS CORP., Toronto symbols T $64.00 and T.A $62.68, has revived its plan to merge its common shares (one vote per share) and its non-voting class A shares into a single class. Under the terms of the proposal, each non-voting share will become one common share. Investors in each share class, voting separately, must approve the plan at a special meeting on October 17, 2012. The company cancelled a vote on the proposal that was scheduled for May 2012 because it felt it had little chance of winning. That’s because U.S.-based hedge fund Mason Capital, which now owns around 19% of Telus’s common shares and a small portion of the non-voting shares, said it would vote against the plan. Mason is using a complex stock-trading strategy that would let it lock in a profit if shareholders reject the proposal....

TELUS $61.56 (Toronto symbol T.A; Shares outstanding: 324.9 million; Market cap: $20.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.0%; www.telus.com) gets 52% of its earnings from its growing wireless business, which now has 7.4 million subscribers across Canada.

The remaining 48% of Telus’s earnings come from its wireline division, which has 3.5 million traditional phone customers in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. This business also has 1.3 million Internet users and 553,000 TV customers.

In the three months ended March 31, 2012, Telus’s earnings per share rose 6.0%, to $1.06 from $1.00 a year earlier. Rising demand for wireless and high-speed Internet services helped push up revenue by 4.0%, to $2.6 billion from $2.5 billion.

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Telus is facing rising competition from new wireless providers, cable companies and web-based phone services. However, the company continues to make big investments in its networks. That will help it hang on to its current customers and attract new ones. TELUS $61.56 (Toronto symbol T.A; Shares outstanding: 324.9 million; Market cap: $20.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.0%; www.telus.com) gets 52% of its earnings from its growing wireless business, which now has 7.4 million subscribers across Canada. The remaining 48% of Telus’s earnings come from its wireline division, which has 3.5 million traditional phone customers in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. This business also has 1.3 million Internet users and 553,000 TV customers....

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TELUS CORP. (Toronto symbols T $59 and T.A $58; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 325.0 million; Market cap: $19.2 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 4.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.telus.com) has won a contract to help more pharmacies in Newfoundland connect to an electronic drug database....

CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE $71 (Toronto symbol CM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Finance sector; Shares outstanding: 404.9 million; Market cap: $28.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 5.1%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.cibc.com) continues to profit by focusing on retail banking, which accounts for 76% of its business. That cuts its reliance on its more-volatile corporate-lending and securities-trading divisions. In its fiscal 2012 second quarter, which ended April 30, 2012, the bank earned $766 million, or $1.90 a share. That’s up 6.1% from $722 million, or $1.80 a share, a year earlier. Without unusual items, such as losses on securities that CIBC holds, earnings per share would have risen 9.3%, to $2.00 from $1.83. Revenue rose 2.3%, to $3.1 billion from $3.0 billion. CIBC is a buy....

Most stock markets are down lately due to investor worries about a potential eurozone breakup, sluggish U.S. growth and a slowdown in China. Still, the long-term outlook is positive. One way to profit from a rebound is to add exchange traded funds (ETFs) that track major stock market indexes to your portfolio. ETFs trade on stock exchanges, just like stocks. Prices are quoted in newspaper stock tables and online. You must pay brokerage commissions to buy and sell ETFs, but their low management fees still give them a cost advantage over most mutual funds....

TELUS $57.97 (Toronto symbol T.A; Shares outstanding: 324.5 million; Market cap: $18.8 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.2%; www.telus.com) has dropped its plan to merge its common shares and its non-voting class A shares into a single class. The company had proposed to convert each non-voting share into one common share. However, the plan had little chance of succeeding, because U.S.-based hedge fund Mason Capital, which now owns around 19% of Telus’s common shares and a small portion of the non-voting shares, said it would vote against the proposal. Mason is using a complex stocktrading strategy that would let it lock in a profit if shareholders reject the plan. Telus still wants to eliminate the dual-class structure, and will probably reintroduce the proposal sometime in the next few months. One step it could take to help ensure the plan’s approval would be to have less time between the reintroduction of the plan and the vote. That way, Mason and other big investors who oppose the proposal would have less time to buy shares and block it....

Tip of the week: There are a few good reasons to pay a little extra money for the right class of shares in the stocks you buy.

TELUS CORP., Toronto symbols T $59.83 and T.A $58.10, has dropped its plan to merge its common shares and its non-voting class A shares into a single class. The company had proposed to convert each non-voting share into one common share. However, the plan had little chance of succeeding, because U.S.-based hedge fund Mason Capital, which now owns around 19% of Telus’s common shares and a small portion of the non-voting shares, said it would vote against the proposal. Mason is using a complex stock-trading strategy that would let it lock in a profit if shareholders reject the plan. Telus still wants to eliminate the dual-class structure, and will probably reintroduce the proposal sometime in the next few months. One step it could take to help ensure the plan’s approval would be to have less time between the reintroduction of the plan and the vote. That way, Mason and other big investors who oppose the proposal would have less time to buy shares and block it....