Still a Top Buy for Low-risk Growth

Article Excerpt

Telus has been a top performer for us in the past few years. It got as low as $7.60 in 2002, mainly because investors feared it paid too much for its 2000 acquisition of wireless provider Clearnet. It then went on to a peak of $66 in September 2006. The final $12 of that rise happened after Telus announced that it planned to turn itself into an income trust. (Telus dropped its conversion plan after Ottawa decided to tax trust distributions.) But most of Telus’s gains since 2002 are due to the huge growth in its wireless business, which has helped offset slowing revenues at its traditional landline operations. Competition in the Canadian wireless industry will undoubtedly intensify in the next decade. But Telus’s ongoing investments in its wireless and traditional phone operations will give it a technological edge that will help fuel its long-term growth. TELUS CORP. (Toronto symbols T $57 and T.A $56; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 337.9…