More wireless gains for BCE

Article Excerpt

BCE INC. $39.38 (Toronto symbol BCE; Shares outstanding: 777.1 million; Market cap: $30.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Dividend yield: 5.3%; www.bce.ca) earned $663 million in the three months ended June 30, 2011. That’s up 11.4% from $595 million a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 10.3%, to $0.86 from $0.78, on more shares outstanding. The latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.81 a share. BCE’s revenue rose 11.6% in the quarter, to $5.0 billion from $4.4 billion. Revenue fell 2.0% at the wireline division, which accounts for 53% of BCE’s total revenue. This division, which includes BCE’s traditional land-line business, is facing rising price competition. As well, many customers are cancelling their land lines and switching to wireless devices. These losses offset higher revenue from the wireline division’s satellite and Internet-based TV services. Revenue from wireless services (26% of total revenue) rose 6.1%. The company’s recent network upgrades continue to attract new subscribers and prompt existing customers to upgrade their…