Telus is now a buy

Article Excerpt

Telus continues to upgrade its wireless and Internet services, with plans to spend $2.2 billion on these improvements this year. That’s helping it attract more subscribers in a highly competitive market. At the same time, the company is expanding its e-commerce operations. It recently paid an undisclosed sum for Groupe Enode, a Quebec firm whose software protects databases from online intruders. TELUS $42.29 (Toronto symbol T; Shares outstanding: 619.0 million; Market cap: $26.0 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 3.6%; www.telus.com) gets 55% of its revenue from its 7.8 million wireless subscribers across Canada. It also has 3.3 million phone customers, 1.4 million high-speed Internet users and 815,000 TV subscribers. In the three months ended March 31, 2014, Telus’s earnings per share rose 8.9%, to $0.61 from $0.56 a year earlier. Revenue increased 5.0%, to $2.90 billion from $2.76 billion. Wireless revenue rose 5.6%, thanks to new wireless subscribers and rising use of smartphones, which generate higher fees than regular cellphones. Revenue…