BCE Inc. (BCE.TO)

Is this a good choice for a steady income for a retiree? A report just came out that if smart phones get to 70% as an installed base in Internet, the growth of this company will slow down sharply, competition will be tough and it will be tougher to grow earnings as quickly, and therefore the dividends. He feels there is no chance for the dividends on this company to get cut.

He evacuated the telco space some time ago. There are better places in the telco space outside of Canada. They all had a bit of a pullback. The dividend is safe and they are not doing anything difficult. You can buy them as they pullback into support. You can either trade or hold a core position.

(A Top Pick Dec 9/11. Up 11.78%.) Expecting further dividend increases so he likes it. Good stock to hold in this environment.

Safe and it will give you your dividend. Doesn’t think there is much growth in earnings. Attractive yield. No growth in wireline and wireless is getting squeezed a little bit on the margin side. Some of the telcos fell today because they went ex-dividend.

(A Top Pick Dec 15/11. Up 8.33%.)

5.4% dividend. Great history of raising dividends 4 times in the last two years. Great cash flow generation. Not worried about them chasing Astral.

Incredibly strong balance sheet. Now coming back with some other kind of Astral take-out. It needs to be a ‘net benefit’ to Canadians. He feels the stock still has some downside before he would pick it up. Pick it up at the 52 week low.

Has another offer on the table to acquire Astral Media (ACM.B-T) as content is going to be very important in the future. Competitors have concerns that there is too much concentration in media. Feels it plays more into their long-term plan rather than having an immediate impact on the stock.

Earns so much free cash flow that it still increases dividends.

Just had a recent pullback and the yield is nice. 5.4%. Phenomenal entry point. They have to make a lot of strides to get away from their wire-line service. Might want to split your holding between this and T-T

CRTC is not in favour of deal with Astral media (ACM.A-T). BCE is a slower growth vehicle. Sees better growth potential in T-T. For BCE he believes the deal will benefit BCE. Would hold it for income, not growth.

Wait to get a more attractive entry point. Telecom valuations are a little expensive. Companies like this really struggle to engineer long term growth. They still have a legacy landline business that they are trying to offset attrition with using the wireless business. Wait until you get to the low $40s. Don’t sell it because it is a defensive name. 5.5% dividend.

Telecom, cable and health care, consumer staples and pharma, make sense because of stability in their cash flows. Easily cover the dividend over the next 3 years. 70% payout ratio. Growth in dividend is likely to be there also.

Looking oversold. His larger holding is with Rogers.

(Market Call Minute) Continues to execute very successfully.