Topic: How To Invest

The Successful Investor Hotline – Friday, August 7, 2020

Article Excerpt

BCE INC., $56.73, Toronto symbol BCE, remains a buy. Through their shares, investors tap Canada’s largest traditional telephone service provider: it has 2.6 million residential customers in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and the Atlantic provinces. BCE also has 3.6 million high-speed Internet users and 2.59 million TV subscribers. In addition, the company sells wireless services to 10.01 million users across Canada and owns TV and radio stations. The COVID-19 lockdowns and the absence of live sporting events severely hurt advertising revenue at BCE’s media properties. Travel restrictions also hurt the amount of roaming fees its wireless business typically collects, while closures of BCE’s retail outlets slowed its ability to sign up new customers. As a result, the company’s revenue in the quarter ended June 30, 2020, fell 9.1%, to $5.35 billion from $5.89 billion a year earlier. That missed the consensus forecast of $5.37 billion. BCE also wrote down the value of its media operations by $452 million. If you factor out that charge and…