Telus Enters a New Era with a Banker at the Helm as a 10% Dividend Yield Tempts Investors

Telus yields over 10% near 52-week low as Victor Dodig succeeds Darren Entwistle; new CEO faces market skepticism and C$66B network plan.

When a blue-chip telecom yields more than 10%, the market is pricing in trouble. Telus shares currently trade at C$16.64 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, within a hair's breadth of their 52-week low of C$16.18 and down roughly 8% since the start of 2026. The dividend payout has become a double-edged sword: it anchors the stock from further collapse but also reflects the deep skepticism surrounding Canada’s No. 3 broadband operator. Against that backdrop, the company is about to undergo one of the most sweeping leadership transitions in its history.

On July 1, 2026, Victor Dodig will take over as president and chief executive, replacing Darren Entwistle, who has led Telus for 26 years. Doug French, the chief financial officer and a three-decade veteran, leaves the same day. In an unusual move, Entwistle will remain as a strategic advisor and hold the title CEO Emeritus until the end of April 2027. Dodig, 60, is a former CEO of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and has served on Telus’s board since 2022. His appointment signals a shift in emphasis: the company is leaning on financial discipline and capital-allocation expertise at a time when the stock is under pressure.

Telus’s recent earnings highlight the challenges awaiting the new management team. In the first quarter of 2026, adjusted earnings per share slipped to C$0.23 from C$0.26 a year earlier, while revenue dipped slightly to C$4.99 billion. Analysts remain cautious: four rate the stock a buy, five a hold, and one a sell. Their consensus price target of C$20.27 implies roughly 22% upside, though BMO Capital in May cut its target to C$19.00 and Scotiabank to C$20.00, both maintaining neutral ratings.

The structural headwinds are considerable. Telus controls just 16.6% of the Canadian broadband market with 2.6 million subscribers, trailing Bell’s 28.5% and Rogers’ 26.2%. The overall market is expected to expand at a 6.8% compound annual rate through 2035, but gaining share has become costlier and legally trickier. Canada’s telecom regulator, the CRTC, recently banned activation fees; Telus and Bell responded by introducing a C$15 SIM card fee — a move critics call a workaround that underscores how limited pricing power has become. Meanwhile, wholesale-access rulings could further squeeze margins.

Despite these pressures, Telus is pursuing an ambitious capital program. The company plans to invest C$66 billion in network expansion by 2030, with more than C$24 billion earmarked for Ontario alone. This year’s capital budget is around C$2.3 billion, supporting a projected free cash flow of roughly C$2.45 billion. Management targets a leverage ratio of about 3.3 times adjusted EBITDA by year-end. Dodig also inherits a growing data-center business: two new facilities in Vancouver are set to open this year, and a third — a 400,000-square-foot site at BC Place with up to 100 megawatts of capacity — is scheduled for 2029.

On the competitive front, Telus is taking small but strategic steps to bolster its position. In June, it launched Optik TV in Montreal and Quebec City while expanding the service in Ontario. It also secured C$63 million in combined federal and provincial funding to bring high-speed fiber to 4,000 households in rural and Indigenous communities in the Thompson-Okanagan region. And it is piggybacking on Bell’s network investments for the 2026 FIFA World Cup: Bell is spending C$25 million on upgrades in Toronto and Vancouver, giving Telus customers potential peak download speeds of 4.3 Gbit/s — a clever way to boost service quality without bearing the full cost.

Telus is also trying to differentiate through niche content. The Indigenous series Kokum & Dot launches June 21 on TELUS Optik TV. While such initiatives won’t move revenue needles, they help retain subscribers in an environment where the CRTC is systematically lowering switching costs.

The stock’s high dividend yield — 10.03% — is a magnet for income investors, but it reflects a price that has fallen sharply from its 52-week high of C$23.18. The trailing price-to-earnings ratio of 27.73 looks stretched for a company with modest earnings growth. Whether Dodig can restore confidence depends on his ability to balance massive infrastructure spending with regulatory reality and a heavy debt load. The first big test will come with the half-year results, expected in late summer 2026. For now, investors are betting that a banker’s discipline can turn a weary telecom into a recovery story — but the stakes are as high as the yield.