John Zechner - BNN - TOP PICK BCE (BCE TSX)
BNN Bloomberg is owned by Bell Media, which is a division of BCE.
BCE, along with the rest of the telecom sector and other high dividend yield sectors, has seriously lagged the overall market move since the beginning of the interest rate increase cycle in 2022. Telecom stocks had the additional negative due to the addition of a legitimate fourth player in the wireless sector and the worries about an impending price war and less subscriber growth due to more limited immigration growth. BCE has suffered the most due to its lower free cash flow generation as it continues to spend on network upgrades. We see limited downside in valuation and expect the nine per cent dividend yield to add further support. Meanwhile, cash flows should continue to grow as traffic volumes expand on both higher streaming activity and the implementation of large language models for AI. Finally, the telecom industry should be a huge beneficiary of the cost reductions available from wide-scale AI implementation as they communicate more efficiently with their customers.
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