Shaw Communication (B)

They're now spending a lot to grow their wireless business and fighting off Telus. The telecoms are good investments now; they're defensive names.More people are at home using bandwidth, though gaining new phone users may be limited. You're paid a 5% dividend. You can but now. It's a duopoly out west, so little competition. He owns its peers instead.

A takeover coming? Managed well. He prefers Bell and Telus. Shaw is betting big on wireless. Telus and Shaw corner the western Canadian market, so it's not competitive. A safe business. COVID will impact wireless sales, though. There have been takeover rumours for a long time, so buy this for the wireless growth, instead. A very safe stock with a safe dividend. This hasn't moved much over time.

T-T, BCE-T, RCI.B-T, SJR.B-T. Telecom is the sector he is the most bullish on. It's his biggest position. It is the sector that is the most resilient. Online traffic has increased dramatically. T-T would not be the top of his telecom list. He would prefer SJR.B-T, BCE-T, and RCI.B-T because of their media businesses.

Shaw missed their last earnings due to increased competition in wireless (Shaw re-entered last year) with lower data packages. She owns few telcos, though they pay an attractive dividend. She prefers BCE who are national and pay a good, rising dividend.

Within the telcom group, he would prefer BCE. Shaw has been broadening their foot print trying to be more competitive. It is going through a transformation, so he would avoid this for now. Yield 4.4%

Worries about telcos--lots of talk in the election about high telco rates. Canadians still pay a lot. He's tiptoeing away from telcos which may have regulations and come off.

He prefers Rogers and BCE. Telus' valuation is very good and moves in line with its peers. All the cable/telcos are a stable business with reasonable growth. But Shaw trades at 17x earnings and 8x EBITDA, so he prefers the others.