RE:Sentiment has changed Ocalaman....
Interestingly based on history, I actually anticipate a small pop in the price of BCE once Management bites the bullet and cuts the dividend. This may however provide a short reprieve in the downward trend line.
The reason for this, as I have commented on in other posts, is that the problem facing BCE (and the other Canadian telecoms) is a systematic change going on which is much bigger than a simple decision to cut the dividend. Profit margins are going to get cut each year for the foreseable future as Canada once and for all joins the rest of world in terms of pricing for telecom services.
The other systematic force, and we have already seen BCE trying to deal with it with cuts to its broadcasting costs. None of my kids have cable services and they stream everything. They are typical of this generation. This will further erode the profitability of the telecoms in and Canada and world-wide for that matter.
Savy investors need to think long and hard about the implications of this and also to figure where to put their investment dollars. In the future I see new winners in this battle. The challenge for the legacy telecoms will be to figure this out as well and get in on the ground floor of this "brave new world".
As I mentioned in a post long ago, there are times in history where there are key technologies that are developed that pretty much change everything after that. As an example in the 70s the digital switch developed by Nortel and the microchip by Intel really changed everything. People who saw this made a fortune. IMO we are now entering another one of these periods and legacy companies need to see that and adapt or they become extinct and those investors that ignore this will lose their shirts.