Telus Corp (T.TO)

(A Top Pick Aug 11/16. Up 7.07%.) This is just sort of soldiering a long. It hasn’t quite got enough FMV to really propel it forward, but has enough that it is still keeping it up there. In the meantime it has a decent yield. The kind of thing you can tuck away in your portfolio and not worry about it.

Telcos are pretty reasonably valued. This one scores in the top 20%. A very stable stock with good price momentum. It is reasonable at 17X earnings with a 4.4% dividend yield.

This has been a great dividend grower, but the dividend growth may moderate somewhat over the next couple of years, but will still be 5% or so. A good Hold longer-term. Dividend yield of 4.3%.

This has been in a range of $40.60-$45, and he sees it going above that. In sector ratings, telcos rank really well. If you want a decent return on your capital and collect some income, even though there might be some gyrations with interest rates, you can’t go far wrong with the telcos.

Trading in record territory. An income stock in a more defensive industry. Generates a lot of free cash flow and provides very attractive yields. A play on the recovery of Western Canada. It is going to face more competition with Shaw (SJR.B-T) ramping up their wireless presence in Western Canada. Dividend yield of 4.3%.

This is based out of Western Canada, so they haven’t been strong just because of the economic picture. He likes the telecoms and thinks this is a good company. Right now he would prefer BCE (BCE-T) or Rogers (RCI.B-T). If looking for growth on capital, there are probably better places to deploy your money over the short term. However, if you just want to park it and forget it, you are probably fine with this.

An extremely well-managed company. One of the best CEOs in Canada. A great business. He would be buying this in the low $40s.

(Market Call Minute) Not her preferred play, but it is an oligopoly.

The economic recovery in the West benefited them last year. This was the laggard in wireless, and then they were the leader in terms of subscriber additions, and now are at the back of the pack. He is waiting for this to get hit on some macro trade with interest rates. He would like to see it down another 5% combined with another dividend increase.

He owns BCE-T. The wireless side has done quite well. They pay a great dividend and expect to raise it over the next little while. You will not see much growth in any of these companies. They want to get fiber in Western Canada. They are getting competition from Shaw.

It is very expensive, as is BCE-T. His model price is $38.76, an 11% downside. As it goes flat, the fundamentals are percolating underneath. Strong stocks go sideways for a long time until fundamentals catch up with them.

Sell? He owns this and likes it, but less than he did a couple of years ago. Because they are essentially only in the wireless space, they are going to need to invest significantly in acquiring spectrum and upgrading networks. It’s a CapX heavy business, and there is not a whole lot of growth in it. A safe name to have in your portfolio, but if looking for some real growth over 3-5 years, you need to go to something like Alphabet (GOOGL-Q) or Amazon (AMZN-Q).

A Western Canadian-based telecom provider. Many years ago they made the wise decision not to get into content. They’ve had a very successful record over the years of paying a dividend and growing it. Over the next couple of years, they will have to pay for some spectrum. Debt has increased on their balance sheet, so they really should slow down their dividend growth rate. They will face more competition with Shaw, after Shaw having acquired Wind Mobile.

(Top Pick Jan 26/16, Up 21.60%) He still likes it, but it is having a hard time getting anywhere. He would not buy it here anymore.

A good name longer-term, but there are competitive pressures with Shaw right now. Thinks their dividend is going to be over 100% of their free cash flow this year due to their heavy CapX. Trading below its five-year average, and lower than the group. Telecoms are pretty expensive here. They have been acting as a bit of a yield proxy. Excellent management team. If he had great capital gains, he would be selling some of this.