Here are two utilities with strong growth

Article Excerpt

Here are two of our top safety-conscious utility recommendations. Both have strong growth plans in place, which should boost their cash flow to pay for dividend increases as well as boost their share prices. TELUS, $32.26, is a buy. The stock (Toronto symbol T; Shares o/s: 1.4 billion; Market cap: $44.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.1%; www.telus.com) gives you a stake in a wireless business with 11.42 million subscribers. It also sells landline phone, Internet, TV and home security services in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. Telus continues to benefit from rising demand for its wireless and TV services as the economy re-opens. In the latest quarter, the company added 193,000 new wireless subscribers (including subscriptions involving cellphones and other mobile devices, net of cancellations). That’s a gain of 10.3% from 175,000 net additions a year earlier. As well, the mobile phone churn rate, which shows how many customers cancelled their service, improved to 1.04% from 1.09%. Telus’s revenue in the three months ended December…