Verizon Communications (VZ)

Seeking dividends Caveat: You don't get the dividend tax credit as a Canadian investor. For good dividends in Canada: telcos, pipelines, utilities (i.e. Emera, Fortis) and the better investment trusts. He buys a bundle of such dividend payers, but these stocks are still below their February highs, as low as 25%.

VZ vs. T Dividend stocks are much more valuable in low interest rate environments. He'd go with Verizon. Do you want to just go for the very high dividend? This could be a red flag. Could be at risk, and wiped out with capital loss on the stock side.

She prefers to own a Canadian telco for dividends, especially as this does not qualify for the Canadian dividend tax credit. She owns BCE instead.

He prefers this to AT&T, because VZ's business model is better--rolling out 5G instead of being a streamer like Netflix and other fierce competitors. Verizon has the legs to expand strongly into 5G. They sold their wireline business three years ago, which was a smart move. They also pay a good dividend.

vs. BCE A good US income stock. Own this in a non-registered account to avoid the tax hit. Better to own BCE, because it won't be taxed in a sheltered account.

They used to own it, but they sold it for AT&T since Verizon did so well. He thinks VZ-N has more growth than AT&T. There will be growth from the Disney deal, though they probably won't have a monopoly. He doesn't see much more upside though.

VZ-N or T-N? VZ-N is a high-quality operator, especially in wireless. Their ROC is 5 times higher than the peer group. You can expect them to continue and are well positioned for 5G, which is beginning to roll out in the US already. This can take market share away from some of the cable companies. He still prefers AT&T (yield 5.4%) as they have more upside once they clear away their current operations inefficiencies. Yield 4.0%

U.S. telcos are still an oligopoly even with the Sprint merger. Still has attractive yield. They will probably participate in 5G which could incur high costs. Would probably buy AT&T instead for the content, higher yield, and diversification.

Just announced lacklustre revenue growth and a marginal rise in earnings. Verizon has an upper-hand on AT&T right now. Concerned about the cost of installing 5G and the amount of revenue to come from it as well as the timeline to reap benefits. Their credit rating has also come under review.

Buy Verizon? At this point in the cycle, interests rates are getting quite low, generally getting a telco is an interesting idea and been recommending this for clients. Recently got out of Verizon and substituted into AT&T. Nothing wrong with Verizon, 5G, fiber-to-the-home, etc. everything is going to work, just thinks there is a better yield opportunity with AT&T. Also owns Deutsche Telekom to play the T-Mobile Sprint merger.