Stephen Takacsy, B. Eng, MBA Telus Corp T-T BUY Dec 11, 2024

Of the big 3 telcos, cleanest "dirty shirt" in the pile. Dividend growth this year, subscriber growth still positive. Moving from a period of heavy capital expense for 5G, to a time to stick to the knitting and long-term playbook. Yield is ~8%, which will be in demand as interest rates fall, and safer than other telco names.

The area's been hurt badly by competition of 4 carriers, lack of population growth, increased cost of capital. Dividend is probably safe. Well-run company. Buy great stocks when they're down. Can't guarantee it won't go lower. Consider adding an options overlay strategy.

Not high-growth. Balance sheet isn't clean. And there's political pressure to open up the teleco market. There are safer places.

Owns only a little Telus and telcos. The dividend is safer than BCE's, but less than Roger's. Telus should be okay, because they invested in fibre optic to the home before others. So, will be lower capex and operating expensives, and more cash flow. Is comfortable with their dividend.

He owns some but is not keen on the telecom sector. Should be OK with its investment in fiber optics and more free cash flow. He is comfortable with the dividend.

Chart shows a neckline ~$22.50, and it's trying to break that. You'd probably see some of the momentum indicators hooking up on the nice move. Struggling a bit at that $22.50. If it breaks out, very good news. He wouldn't buy until it broke out.

It was doing well, until people started questioning their dividend last week. But Telus raised their dividend last November, and they know what they're doing with their future business. This has gotten much cheaper in recent months. If the rest of the market is negative, this and BCE could look a lot better. Trades cheaply, pays dividends and works in a protected industry.

At these levels, this whole area is a buy, and this name is a very strong buy. Probably washed out, multi-year lows. Culprits for that are too much debt, imperfect CRTC decisions, increased competition, and less immigration. Yield is 7.8%, and safer than BCE's.

Valuation ~15x is much more reasonable than it's been in years. 2025 won't be great, but beyond that he's modeling decent growth around 13%. Asset sale of towers is a really good catalyst to right the balance sheet. Better use of capital than to have it tied up in that kind of infrastructure.

Good entry point as a long-term hold for income. Could never call this a high-growth stock. Lower-growth, stable, defensive name that owns critical infrastructure. Usually performs well during recessionary periods. Probably in best position among peers -- further along in fibre to the home buildout, better financial position, a bit more "growth" (as in 2% instead of 1%). Yield is 7%, with usually 2 increases a year.

Her firm likes to be really conservative with clients. If you get most of your return in the form of a dividend, then you're not relying as much on an increase in the stock price.

He actually likes both. Looking at price action over the last few days, these names have held up rather well. Sector's bottomed out. Both names have high dividend yields, tremendous FCF, lots of opportunity going forward to buy back stock. Worst is over for the sector, phenomenal opportunity.

With BCE, you should anticipate a dividend cut; this would be fine with him, as it will free up $$ to reduce debt and possibly buy back stock. If that happens, it would be a positive rather than causing the bottom to fall out of the stock. Investment community wants it to cut the dividend, reduce debt, and undertake a better allocation strategy. Still throwing off significant cashflow. Too early to say if it overpaid for the Ziply acquisition.

Telus has done better, with better growth. Invested in other things to diversify its business.