Benefit from this smart move

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TELUS CORP. $26 is a buy. The company (Toronto symbol T; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 1.35 billion; Market cap: $35.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 4.9%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.telus.com) is Canada’s third-largest wireless carrier after Rogers Communications (No. 1) and Bell Mobility (No. 2). It also sells landline phone, Internet and TV services in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. Telus recently sold 51 million new common shares for a total of $1.3 billion. That cash will help fund its plan to spend $1.5 billion in 2021 and 2022 to replace copper wires in its high-speed Internet networks with fibre-optic cables. Those upgrades should help Telus attract new customers while rivals Rogers and Shaw Communications are focused on winning regulatory approval for their planned merger. Telus is so confident in its future prospects that it’s now raising your quarterly dividend by 1.6%. Starting with the July 2021 payment, investors will receive $0.3162 a share instead of…