Telus gains from fast-growing wireless

Article Excerpt

Telus’ focus on the expanding, but highly competitive wireless market gives it a narrower base of business than BCE. That risk is reflected in Telus’ higher p/e and lower yield. Telus is still a buy, but BCE is the more conservative choice. TELUS CORP. $47.65 (Toronto symbol T.A; Shares outstanding: 320.7 million; Market cap: $15.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.2%; www.telus.com) is Canada’s second-largest telephone company, after BCE Inc. Telus has 6.9 million wireless subscribers across Canada. Its traditional phone business has 3.8 million customers in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. Telus also has 1.2 million Internet subscribers. Its new “Telus TV” service, which operates through phone lines, has just 266,000 subscribers. In the three months ended September 30, 2010, Telus’ earnings rose 6.0%, to $0.89 a share from $0.84 a year earlier. The company earned higher profits from wireless and Internet services. That offset a decline in local and long-distance customers. Telus gets 51% of its earnings from wireless…