Topic: How To Invest

The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, February 10, 2017

Article Excerpt

TELUS CORP., $43.14, Toronto symbol T, is Canada’s second-largest wireless carrier, after Rogers Communications, with 8.6 million subscribers. In addition, its wireline division serves 3.1 million traditional phone customers in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. This business also has 1.7 million Internet users and 1.1 million TV subscribers. In the three months ended December 31, 2016, the company earned $87 million, or $0.14 a share. That’s down sharply from $261 million, or $0.44 a share, a year earlier. The decline is mainly due to Telus’s one-time payment of $350 million (consisting of cash and common shares) to its employees in the latest quarter. In exchange, the company will freeze salaries until 2019. If you disregard all unusual items, earnings per share in the quarter fell 1.9%, to $0.53 from $0.54. That missed the consensus estimate of $0.58. Revenue gained 2.7%, to $3.3 billion from $3.2 billion, matching the consensus forecast. Telus added 78,000 wireless subscribers in the latest quarter, net of cancellations, up 116.7% from…