Top telecoms offer dividend sustainability

Article Excerpt

Both BCE and Telus continue to prosper in the competitive Canadian telecom market. That positions them to continue raising their already-high dividend payouts. BCE INC. $60 (Toronto symbol BCE; Income Growth Dividend Payer Portfolio, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 868.2 million; Market cap: $52.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.4; Dividend yield: 4.6%; Dividend Sustainability Rating: Highest; www.bce.ca) is Canada’s largest telephone provider, with 6.5 million customers in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. It also has 3.4 million high-speed Internet users and 2.75 million TV subscribers. In all, these operations supplied 56% of BCE’s revenue in 2015. BCE also sells wireless services (32% of revenue) to 8.3 million cellphone users across Canada. The remaining 12% of its revenue comes from its Bell Media business; the CTV Television Network, several specialty channels, The Movie Network pay-TV service and radio stations. The company has paid dividends since it began operating as the Bell Telephone Company of Canada in 1880. In 1983, more than a century later, it…