It seems that nearly every day, either on a financial news show or in spam, investors get a "hot" tip on a highly rated company. But it's not very often you can get top picks from a 110,000-member community like Motley Fool CAPS. If you missed what the best investors in CAPS say is hot in telecom right now, read on.
For investors interested in domestic telecom services, the CAPS community rates familiar names like AT&T (NYSE: T) and Windstream (NYSE: WIN) high enough to hit the top five out of 45 companies in the group. It may not be surprising to see the carrier behind millions of Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhones at the top, but a rural telco?
Providing voice, video, and data services outside dense metro markets may not be flashy, but I'm betting that a 7.6% yield is one reason investors dig Windstream. A rural focus also didn't keep Windstream from growing profits by 24% in its first quarter. I could go on, but you can see for yourself why nearly 95% of the 314 investors who rated Windstream are bullish.
If you're looking to invest in foreign telecoms, there are some intriguing opportunities in PT Indosat (NYSE: IIT) and MTN Group. The Indonesian and South African service providers are tops among 65 foreign telecom plays -- for good reasons.
Telecom services, particularly cellular, are growing at a blistering pace in both regions. Fellow Fool Ryan Furhmann noted recently that the Jakarta Stock Exchange has tipped the scales with a rise of nearly 400% in the past five years. Indonesia is a market not to be overlooked.
Of course, Indonesia doesn't grab headlines the way the emerging markets of China or India do, but that's more reason to consider a region showing early signs of booming development. With China embroiled in a major overhaul of its telecom market, I'd advise caution around mainstays like China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) and China Unicom (NYSE: CHU) anyway.
And finally, if you're looking for a more stable investing ground than emerging markets, France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) tops the list of 23 companies in the CAPS Telecom tag. More than 95% of the 109 CAPS All-Stars are bullish on the French giant, and you can get the lowdown on even more top-ranked companies for free in CAPS.
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