Investment Q&A

Q: I usually look at EPS, company debt, payout ratio and their # of common stocks while reviewing a company financials.
How would you justify Telus's 135% payout ratio ?
Company earned 1.22 (2021) and 1.15 (2022) and paid dividend of 1.27 (2021) and 1.36 (2022)
Long term debt is increasing and they have almost doubled their common stocks in last few years. All leads me to believe there may not be much growth in terms of the stock price in next 2-3 years.
Their cash flow doesn't looks sufficient to cover their dividend unless I am missing something here.
Thank you for your guidance.

Q: What is the best metric(s) to use to value Telus, and how does that / those metrics compare to the past historic range(s) ? If it is P/E, then I find it hard to justify buying today at what appears to be approximately 24X.

Q: What's your current view on Telus? The stock hasn't done much and going down. There is likely increased competition from Rogers/Shaw merger. I also hold BCE and wondering if its time to move from Telus to another opportunity.

Q: Hi Peter, Ryan, and Team,

Lately, Telus is under-performing Bell by quite a lot. On days when both stock prices are increasing, BCE goes up by a greater percentage than T, and conversely, when there's a decline, BCE declines less. We own both in our combined accounts, and Portfolio Analytics indicates that our Communication Services sector should be increased. If we wish to do this, is BCE the safer stock?

Also, is there something going on here that is causing this under-performance of Telus?

Thanks as always for your sage advice.

Q: I am looking to initiate a position in Canadian Telecoms and noticed that only BCE is present in your Income portfolio (4.5 %). Nothing in Balance or Growth. No Telsus either. Could you elaborate your reasoning please.

Q: Please comment impact of Rogers-Shaw deal on T What is good entry point for T ?Is it ok to buy T in this market conditions?Thanks for U usual great serives & views.

Q: Do you think that the Canadian Internet providers are at risk of being disrupted by Starlink? Have the Telcos addressed this issue to the investment community and explained their strategy to deal with this challenge?

Thanks.

Q: Many companies have become addicted to low interest rates over the last decade. Assuming that interest rates stay where they are for years to come (a rate once considered somewhat "normal"), do you see any problem with any of these blue chip stocks maintaining their dividend ? I'm sure over the course of the next 5 years or so some of these companies will need to renew debt at higher rates.

Q: Non registered account : I sold a majority of stocks in 2022-2023 in order to convert them into a diversified dividend ETFs portfolio.I though intend to only keep" safe stocks for long term".Please could you rank them in this "safety perspective" , a "hold,buy, or sell" comment would be greatly appreciated,considering the fact that in this case,selling a stock would result in "buying an ETF in the same sector" .Many Thanks for your excellent website ,J-Y

Q: In which order would you initiate buys on these stocks? Do you like all three? I’m looking for a little growth and good dividend yield.

Q: This question concerns a well diversified Canadian portfolio (~30 holdings), focused slightly toward growth.

Looking to add to positions in ATZ, DOO, BN, BAM, GSY, KXS, TRI, PBH and T as well as initiate a partial position in WELL, all for long term holds (5+ years).

Would you rate any of these as a wait-and-see rather than a buy today? Please rate (1-10) in terms of your conviction to buy today, along with suggested target buy range [great, okay].

Thank you.

Q: I've dithered and let my position in Shaw run. To get prepared for the takeover, I'm thinking of moving in Bell, Telus and Sunlife in equal weightings. Looking for safety and dividends, any better ideas?

thanks in advance for the help,
Andrew

Q: I AM TECH HEAVY AND WANT TO REBALANCE MY PORTFOLIO. WOULD YOU PLEASE SUGGEST TWO CANADIAN AND TWO US STOCKS IN EACH OF THE FOLLOWING SECTORS. CONSUMER DISCRETIONARY, CONSUMER STAPLES, MATERIALS AND COMMUNICATIONS. I HAVE BEEN A MEMBER SINCE DAY ONE OF 5I AND RATE YOU THE BEST OF THE SIX NEWSLETTERS I SUBSCRIBE TOO. THANKS FOR THE GREAT WORK AND TAKE AS MANY CREDITS AS NEEDED.

Q: I hold both of these. Is it necessary? Do they overlap? Which would you recommend if only owning one? Which do you think will do better over 5-10 yrs including dividends?
thanks
michele

Q: I have BCE and T for Canada. VZ for USA. What additional telecom stock(s) would you recommend to round off this sector?
Thank you,
Roger

Q: May I have your thoughts and today's earnings release and forward guidance? Also comment on your opinion as to buy, hold or sell.

Thx.

Q: Hi 5i,
I was watching a recorded market call yesterday from early Feb, with Ryan Bushell. He made the case that T will outperform BCE in the coming years (he seems to be very much a long term investor) and he laid out a number of reasons why he thought BCE might underperform T. It made me look at my holdings in each and wonder if I should switch out my BCE for more T.
In reviewing them, the share price of BCE has declined just over 8% in the past year while T is down 9.3%. Their P/E is near the same, but BCE's ROE is currently 15.6% to T's 12.7%. The current yield on BCE is 6.26%, compared to 4.9% for T. Based on my purchase price, I'm earning a little more than that on each - 6.55% on BCE and 5.12% on T.
I know that Ryan's take is based on his view of the future for each name, and he thinks the future is rosier for T. But based on the numbers I've laid out above - which I recognize are all about the past and not the future - I don't see a compelling reason to jettison the BCE I hold in my RSP and use the proceeds to bump up my T.
I would be very interested on your thoughts on the two, looking ahead.
Thanks,
Peter

Q: I am tempted to trade Loblaws for Telus in my RIF. Telus has a better dividend and to me seems to have greater growth prospects. What do you think of this trade?
Thanks
David

Q: Some of my weightings have become low and wondering which one of these currently would be the value to add to.

Q: These 3 equities are part of 13 in an income oriented portfolio. SLF is the only financial. If it were you, would you sell one of the Telco.s and purchase a bank? In a word, where would you want to tilt, do you believe the better return lies with financials or with Telco.s. If one is to be sold, which Telco would you let go?