Ready for Verizon

Article Excerpt

TELUS $31.68 (Toronto symbol T; Shs. o/s: 653.8 million; Market cap: $20.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 4.3%; www.telus.com) has 7.7 million wireless subscribers across Canada, and gets much more of its revenue from wireless than BCE (54% compared to BCE’s 32%—see left). Telus gets the remaining 46% of its revenue from its traditional phone business, which has 3.4 million customers in B.C., Alberta and eastern Quebec. Telus also has 1.3 million Internet subscribers and 712,000 Telus TV subscribers. In the three months ended March 31, 2013, Telus’s earnings per share rose 14.3%, to $0.56 from $0.49 a year earlier. Revenue rose 4.8%, to $2.76 billion from $2.63 billion. Verizon’s move into Canada will increase competition for Telus, which is Canada’s second-largest wireless service provider after Rogers Communications. Verizon could also use its large size to offer consumers cheaper smartphones and lower roaming fees in the U.S. But even if Verizon is successful, Telus’s outlook remains positive. Like…