5G investments are paying off

Article Excerpt

BCE INC. $64 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 911.9 million; Market cap: $58.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 5.8%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest traditional telephone service provider. It also sells wireless services and owns TV and radio stations. The company continues to benefit from the rollout of its high-speed 5G wireless network. It expects its 5G service will cover about 40% of Canada’s population in all 10 provinces by the end of 2022. In the third quarter of 2022, BCE added 167,798 new wireless subscribers (net of cancellations) under long-term contracts, up 46.1% from 114,821 in the year-earlier quarter. 5G users tend to consume more data, which is why average monthly revenue per user in the quarter improved 2.2% to $60.72 from a year earlier. That steady growth will let BCE keep raising your dividend; it has increased the rate each year since 2008. The current annual rate…