Topic: Dividend Stocks

BCE INC. $57 – Toronto symbol BCE

BCE INC. $57 (Toronto symbol BCE; Conservative Growth and Income Portfolios, Utilities sector; Shares outstanding: 849.4 million; Market cap: $48.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.3; Dividend yield: 4.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.bce.ca) continues to benefit from strong demand for its wireless and high-speed Fibe Internet and TV services.

In the quarter ended September 30, 2015, BCE’s earnings rose 21.9%, to $790 million from $648 million a year earlier. Per-share profits gained just 12.0%, to $0.93 from $0.83, on more shares outstanding. Revenue rose 2.9%, to $5.3 billion from $5.2 billion.

The company added 77,655 new wireless subscribers under long-term contracts, net of cancellations, beating the consensus forecast of 77,400. Most of these customers use smartphones, which generate higher monthly fees than regular cellphones.

BCE also continues to see strong demand for its TV offerings: it now has 1.11 million subscribers to its Fibe TV service, up 29.3% from a year ago.

The company still expects to earn $3.28 to $3.38 a share for all of 2015, and the stock trades at a reasonable 17.1 times the midpoint of that range. The $2.60 dividend yields 4.6%.

BCE is a buy.

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