Swisscom (VTX:SCMN)

Swisscom is the leading company in the Swiss telecommunications market. It is the result of the division of PTT in 1998, and is majority state-owned (62.4 %). It has the status of a public limited company under public law, in accordance with the Telecommunications Enterprise Act. More than 20,000 employees work for Swisscom Group companies. The stock is part of the strategy Ex-US International ETFs and Dividend Stocks demon portfolio.

Swisscom has a mobile telephony market share of over 60 %for a total of 6.2 million customers. Its main competitors are Sunrise and Orange. Its network and customer service are superior to those of its competitors. It also operates 1.7 million fixed-line broadband connections and has 791,000 Swisscom TV customers. By controlling the "last mile" of fixed-line connections, it enjoys a de facto monopoly on the market.

Swisscom currently offers a very attractive yield of 5.11%slightly below the long-term average of 6.05%. Despite this, the payout ratio is still decent, at 66.12%, proving that the generous yield is not due to the Group's spending spree, but rather to an attractive share price. The PER of 12.79 proves the point. With this payout ratio, Swisscom has the margin to ensure dividend payments in the future, and even to increase them, even in the event of a slight fall in earnings. In recent years, the company has increased its dividend at an attractive annual rate of 11.43%.

Thanks to its monopolistic positionSwisscom is relatively unaffected by the ups and downs of the market. The share price has a volatility of just 13.34%, while the beta is just 0.27. The chart below shows the particularly defensive nature of the stock.

Swisscom, thanks to its focus on the Swiss market and again thanks to its monopolistic position, has the additional advantage of being spared the fluctuations of the currency market. Unlike many Swiss companies, many of which are heavily export-oriented, the company has not suffered the consequences of the franc's rise. This is confirmed by a $risk of -0.61%.

In the end, Swisscom gets 4 starsa very good risk/return ratio. The yield, while generous, is based on solid, growing dividends. At the same time, the share price remains relatively insensitive to currency and market risks. I've got the stock on my radar and will be looking to buy it soon.

Sources: Swissquote, Yahoo Finance, Wikipedia, Swisscom, dividendes.ch