BCE Inc. (BCE.TO)

Has been one of our better performing stocks over the last couple of years, and has performed well in this kind of environment. They are fast on their feet and are spreading out into TV, sports, etc. They like increasing their dividend. Dividend yield of 4.6%.

Not a huge fan of telcos, because growth in telcos is wireless, and wireless is not growing in a meaningful way. You now have a 4^th entrant coming in, so there are a lot of headwinds. However, given it is a lousy market out there, it is not a bad place to park some cash. Now is not a bad time to look at this for bottom fishing.

He likes how the company is positioning itself. They are going after data, so it is an interesting way on how they are competing with Rogers (RCI.B-T), which makes a lot of sense. Dividend yield of 4.71%.

Sell at $58 and replace with a dividend paying stock with more growth? He likes this name. A lot of the telcos in Canada became a little bit rich in terms of valuations. You’re getting great cash flow and great dividends. This gives you a 4.7% dividend yield with a single digit growth rate over the next 3 years. For growth profile, you could look at Cineplex (CGX-T) which has a dividend of close to 3.9%. You could also look at some of the Canadian banks.

(A Top Pick Jan 19/15. Up 2.82%.) The dividend is a positive. The negative overhang going forward will be the pick and pay television that CRTC has mandated to introduce in March following through to December.

A relatively defensive investment, and if you want yield it is probably a good long-term hold. Wire line is being offset by wireless. The telcos have all been good at restructuring and cost cutting on their wire line side. They generate a lot of cash flow and are kind of focusing on their wireless. Everyone is taking shares from each other and it is a type of oligopoly.

Chart shows a little bit of an issue on the top side, only because it has gone there before. It got to $60 and stopped, went up again and then came back again. It is working on resistance or support. Now you want it to turn and go back up to those levels again. He likes the name.

(A Top Pick Nov 19/15. Down 7.43%.) Bought this as it broke out of its consolidation at $56. It looked pretty good for a while until the December selloff. He is not going to panic from a short-term movement like the current one. If it stayed below his support line, and the market started to move up, he would be out of it. He is going to watch it for a few more days. It seems to be trading in its old band and he is comfortable with that.

Shaw announced they were buying Wind Mobile and this sent all the telcos down. It means there is another strong player in the sector. She moved out of telecom a couple of years ago on regulatory concerns. The government wanted more competition. BCE-T was down the least of them all. It is still a defensive play with an attractive yield. She thinks today was a knee-jerk reaction. Don’t sell here. Wait and see how this plays out. She would not jump in right now.

He has a stop/loss on this, only because if pension funds start selling this is one of their big picks and he might have to get out. Likes the structure where they are changing over the deal that they did with HBO. They are kind of competing with Rogers (RCI.B-T), not on the cable side, but on the content side. Dividend yield of 4.82%.

This gives you stable growth, strong free cash flow and a very steady dividend growth. Dividend is very attractive at 4.5%. Going forward, the average revenue per user of wireless, smart phones, etc., is expected to move higher as there is greater consumption as people move from 3G to 4G and continue to buy more powerful smart phones and tablets. They recently signed an exclusive agreement with HBO, which has great content. However, if interest rates start to move higher, some of the telcos do start to weaken. He is not as concerned about this in Canada.

Looks very interesting. Technically it recently established an upward trend, above 20 day and strong compared to market. On a seasonal basis, it is strong form beginning of December to beginning of March. A good one to hold.

Largest telecom in Canada also with media assets. They did an equity raise to deleverage the balance sheet. Low volatility and good history of raising dividends. A good long term hold and a yield of 6.4%.

At the close of the day they did a big Bought deal, $750 million. Their balance sheet is a little bit stretched. They wanted to acquire another company, but will require capital. He sees more dividend growth and earnings growth going forward.

AT&T (T-N) or BCE (BCE-T) for dividends? Although they are both mega names in the telco space, they are quite different, primarily because the telco space in the US is much more competitive, which means price wars. The margins are much thinner in the US. AT&T’s share price since about mid-2012 has really done nothing. He would sell AT&T and buy this.