
TSE:BCE
He's reduced his holding (and entirely sold Rogers). Concerned if their cash can cover their dividend. Is waiting for more growth. The company says that capex will decrease in a few years and they can sustain the dividend. Clearly, the market is concerned with their 9% dividend. Great managers and high returns? Both no.
Income stock. Interest sensitive sector, which tends to carry a lot more debt. Paying out more than free cashflow, has been very transparent on this. Payout ratio should get below 100%, but not for a couple of years. Yield is 8.6%, doesn't think it will be cut, safe, investment-grade balance sheet.
Doesn't think company should increase dividend. Increased by 3% last quarter. She didn't think this was necessary, as yield is already pretty attractive.
Consensus is BOC will start to cut rates June 2024, and this will be good for telecom stocks in general including BCE, as cost of funding goes down. Discount rate on cashflow would also go down, so this would support valuations.
Shares have been under pressure because its debt ratio looks too high. The dividend is safe for the short term, but pressure from the big institutions may force a cut. Also, he firmly believes that interest rates will fall later this year which will reduce the pain of their debt, so these stocks will rise. Don't sell BCE here, but it won't go up in the next few weeks.
Due to the falling price it now pays about an 8% dividend which he feels is sustainable, although the payout ratio is quite high. If interest rates come down this should help dividend payers and the Canadian stock market in general. The Canadian markets have more dividend payers than the U.S. markets.
Interest rates went higher, and there's a lot of competition. CRTC regulations will hurt ROE. Oversold now. At some point, it will be time to buy. Fears of small dividend cut. Long term, the ship will right. Yield is 8.6%.
Over history, there are always former darlings that take a tumble, like ENB and TRP. Eventually, it will return to $51-53 and you'll be fine. If you're not already overexposed to the name, you can buy some here.
Lots of people own it for the dividend. That's fine until underlying performance issues cause the stock to go down 10-15%. Right now, looks oversold, wouldn't be surprised by a short- to medium-term bounce in the not-too-distant future.
Long-term, not sure he'd want it as part of his portfolio. Better returns elsewhere. Similar dividend income from the Canadian banks or covered call strategy, with less risk.
Good yield with both. 5G is not very mature, but will work out well over the next several years. Lots of growth in data. Debt-oriented companies in a high interest rate environment, this has hurt them both. Need to rationalize their businesses, but government intervenes when it chooses, as with BCE layoffs. So they have to be careful.
Tough slog with BCE. Issue is that people are worried dividend will be cut, or that assets will be sold to cover it. Yield is almost 9%, but he doesn't "think" they'll cut it. May have to sell more assets to bring down debt. Don't switch at these levels. Hold, and hope for better times ahead.
Telus is incredibly well run. Includes a number of great businesses they've developed and brought out in public.