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rich9 agent GitLab Chief Financial Officer Brian Robins to Present at the Barclays 22nd Annual Global Technology Conference( ) offers an attractive 7.35% dividend yield, which immediately catches the eye of income-focused investors. And while that looks mighty fine, there are other points to consider before going all in. So, let’s look at what might make TELUS stock worth your time. The numbers TELUS stock’s recent earnings report paints a positive picture, with net income for the third quarter of 2024 reaching $923 million. Earnings per share (EPS) saw an impressive 111% year-over-year , and free cash flow surged by 58%. These figures underscore the company’s ability to generate consistent returns and maintain robust operations, even in challenging market conditions. Looking back, TELUS stock has demonstrated a reliable track record of growth. In the third quarter of 2023, it achieved a record-breaking addition of 406,000 customers. This achievement highlights the company’s strong competitive position and its ability to attract and retain a growing customer base. Its strategic focus on expanding its services and improving customer satisfaction has clearly paid off over the years. The future outlook for TELUS stock is equally promising. Analysts expect revenue to grow to $20.8 billion in 2025 and further to $21.8 billion by 2026. This anticipated growth is bolstered by the company’s strategic investments in technology and infrastructure. TELUS stock plans to invest $24 billion in Ontario and $17 billion in British Columbia over the next five years, focusing on enhancing its network and operations. Such commitments not only support its growth trajectory but also position the company to capitalize on future market opportunities. Valuation While the dividend yield is undeniably attractive, the sustainability of such payouts requires scrutiny. TELUS stock’s payout ratio is a hefty 242.92%, meaning it pays out significantly more in dividends than it earns in net income. Although the company has a history of dividend increases, this high payout ratio could be a cause for concern if earnings growth does not keep pace. For now, strong operating cash flow helps sustain these payouts, but it remains a factor to monitor closely. Debt levels are another consideration. As of the most recent quarter, TELUS stock reported $29.05 billion in total debt, with a debt-to-equity ratio of 171.64%. While the company generates substantial cash flow, such high debt could limit financial flexibility. Investors need to weigh this against the company’s ability to service its obligations and continue funding growth initiatives. In terms of valuation, TELUS stock’s trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio stands at 34.76, with a forward P/E of 21.46. This suggests that the market anticipates earnings growth, which aligns with the company’s outlook. The price-to-book ratio of 2.07 indicates that the stock is trading at a premium relative to its book value, reflecting investor confidence in its future prospects. Market strength Compared to its industry peers, TELUS stock offers a higher dividend yield, making it particularly appealing to those seeking steady income. However, its elevated payout ratio relative to competitors may hint at greater risks if market conditions deteriorate. This is balanced by the company’s continued expansion and operational improvements, which enhance its overall appeal. TELUS stock’s market position remains strong, with consistent additions in both mobile and fixed services. This reflects its ability to adapt and innovate in a competitive telecom landscape. Furthermore, the company’s focus on customer satisfaction and service quality helps it maintain a loyal customer base, which is crucial for sustaining long-term growth. For income-focused investors, TELUS stock presents a compelling case. The dividend yield is generous, and the company’s growth plans and operational stability support its attractiveness. However, the high payout ratio and debt levels introduce some risks that cannot be overlooked. Ultimately, the decision to invest in TELUS stock depends on balancing the allure of its dividends with the potential challenges posed by its financial structure.Shares of American Eagle plunge 13% as company issues weak holiday guidanceHOUSTON (AP) — An elaborate parody appears to be behind an effort to resurrect Enron, the Houston-based energy company that exemplified the worst in American corporate fraud and greed after it went bankrupt in 2001. If its return is comedic, some former employees who lost everything in Enron’s collapse aren’t laughing. “It’s a pretty sick joke and it disparages the people that did work there. And why would you want to even bring it back up again?” said former Enron employee Diana Peters, who represented workers in the company’s bankruptcy proceedings. Here’s what to know about the history of Enron and the purported effort to bring it back. Once the nation’s seventh-largest company, Enron filed for bankruptcy protection on Dec. 2, 2001, after years of accounting tricks could no longer hide billions of dollars in debt or make failing ventures appear profitable. The energy company's collapse put more than 5,000 people out of work and wiped out more than $2 billion in employee pensions. Its aftershocks were felt throughout the energy sector. Twenty-four Enron executives , including former CEO Jeffrey Skilling , were convicted for their roles in the fraud. Enron founder Ken Lay’s convictions were vacated after he died of heart disease following his 2006 trial. On Monday — the 23rd anniversary of the bankruptcy filing — a company representing itself as Enron announced in a news release it was relaunching as a “company dedicated to solving the global energy crisis.” It also posted a video on social media, advertised on at least one Houston billboard and a took out a full-page ad in the Houston Chronicle In the minute-long video full of generic corporate jargon, the company talks about “growth” and “rebirth.” It ends with the words, “We’re back. Can we talk?” In an email, company spokesperson Will Chabot said the new Enron was not doing any interviews yet, but "We’ll have more to share soon.” Signs point to the comeback being a joke. In the “terms of use and conditions of sale” on the company's website, it says “the information on the website about Enron is First Amendment protected parody, represents performance art, and is for entertainment purposes only.” Documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show College Company, an Arkansas-based LLC, owns the Enron trademark. The co-founder of College Company is Connor Gaydos, who helped create a joke conspiracy theory claiming all birds are actually government surveillance drones. Peters said she and some other former employees are upset and think the relaunch was “in poor taste.” “If it’s a joke, it’s rude, extremely rude. And I hope that they realize it and apologize to all of the Enron employees,” Peters said. Peters, 74, said she is still working in information technology because “I lost everything in Enron, and so my Social Security doesn’t always take care of things I need done.” “Enron’s downfall taught us critical lessons about corporate ethics, accountability, and the consequences of unchecked ambition. Enron’s legacy was the employees in the trenches. Leave Enron buried,” she said. But Sherron Watkins, Enron’s former vice president of corporate development and the main whistleblower who helped uncover the scandal, said she didn’t have a problem with the joke because comedy “usually helps us focus on an uncomfortable historical event that we’d rather ignore.” “I think we use prior scandals to try to teach new generations what can go wrong with big companies,” said Watkins, who still speaks at colleges and conferences about the Enron scandal. This story was corrected to fix the spelling of Ken Lay’s first name, which had been misspelled “Key.” Follow Juan A. Lozano on X at https://x.com/juanlozano70

Donegal Group Inc sees $271,376 in stock purchases by major shareholderAnduril, Microsoft's OpenAI Partner to Strengthen U.S. AI Capabilities in National Defense

Why Nvidia (NVDA) Stock Is Declining Again TodayTORONTO — Canada's main stock index moved lower Monday, weighed down by energy stocks as the price of oil fell, while U.S. stock markets rose. The S&P/TSX composite index closed down 33.93 points at 25,410.35, while the Dow Jones led the way with an almost one-per-cent gain. “The themes of the last couple of weeks are familiar again today,” said Steve Locke, chief investment officer for fixed income and multi-asset strategies at Mackenzie Investments. Specific sectors that investors think could benefit from president-elect Trump’s promised policies have been leading the way, said Locke, such as financials, industrials and health care. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 440.06 points at 44,736.57. The S&P 500 index was up 18.03 points at 5,987.37, while the Nasdaq composite was up 51.19 points at 19,054.84. Amid the transition period before Trump becomes president, Locke said investors are eyeing pieces of information that could help illuminate what’s to come, in the form of nominations. The latest announcement was Scott Bessent, a hedge fund manager, for Treasury Secretary. “The markets reacted positively to his announcement,” said Locke. “I think the candidate here ... is someone that the market feels a little bit more comfortable with in the context of gradual imposition of tariffs and things like that.” U.S. Treasury yields eased on Monday, after climbing post-election. Yields were on the rise after the election as markets priced in fewer rate cuts in the coming year, said Locke, in anticipation of Trump’s pro-growth policies. However, though the election has been top of mind for investors, the U.S. Federal Reserve has a lot of economic data coming down the pipeline before its last interest rate decision this year, said Locke, including data this week on the housing market, consumer confidence, and manufacturing. “It’ll be a little bit of a mixture this week, we think, but nothing that probably changes the direction of the Fed here too much as we think about the expectations for policy rate changes in the upcoming meeting in December,” he said. Markets are currently split on whether the central bank will hold steady or announce another quarter-percentage-point cut, said Locke. Oil prices fell Monday, which Locke said was likely tied to talk of a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah. The Canadian dollar traded for 71.53 cents US compared with 71.54 cents US on Friday. The January crude oil contract was down US$2.30 at US$68.94 per barrel and the January natural gas contract was up 16 cents at US$3.44 per mmBTU. The December gold contract was down US$93.70 at US$2,618.50 an ounce and the March copper contract was up three cents at US$4.16 a pound. — With files from The Associated Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 25, 2024. Companies in this story: (TSX:GSPTSE, TSX:CADUSD) Rosa Saba, The Canadian Press

Doctored images have been around for decades. The term "Photoshopped" is part of everyday language. But in recent years, it has seemingly been replaced by a new word: deepfake. It's almost everywhere online, but you likely won't find it in your dictionary at home. What exactly is a deepfake, and how does the technology work? RELATED STORY | Scripps News Reports: Sex, Lies, and Deepfakes A deepfake is an image or video that has been generated by artificial intelligence to look real. Most deepfakes use a type of AI called a "diffusion model." In a nutshell, a diffusion model creates content by stripping away noise. "With diffusion models, they found a very clever way of taking an image and then constructing that procedure to go from here to there," said Lucas Hansen said. He and Siddharth Hiregowdara are cofounders of CivAI, a nonprofit educating the public on the potential — and dangers — of AI. How diffusion models work It can get complicated, so imagine the AI – or diffusion model – as a detective trying to catch a suspect. Like a detective, it relies on its experience and training. It recalls a previous case -– a sneaky cat on the run. Every day it added more and more disguises. On Monday, no disguise. Tuesday, it put on a little wig. Wednesday, it added some jewelry. By Sunday, it's unrecognizable and wearing a cheeseburger mask. The detective learned these changes can tell you what it wore and on what day. AI diffusion models do something similar with noise, learning what something looks like at each step. "The job of the diffusion model is to remove noise," Hiregowdara said. "You would give the model this picture, and then it will give you a slightly de-noised version of this picture." RELATED STORY | Scripps News got deepfaked to see how AI could impact elections When it's time to solve the case and generate a suspect, we give it a clue: the prompts we give when we create an AI-generated image. "We have been given the hint that this is supposed to look like a cat. So what catlike things can we see in here? Okay, we see this curve, maybe that's an ear," Hiregowdara said. The "detective" works backward, recalling its training. It sees a noisy image. Thanks to the clue, it is looking for a suspect — a cat. It subtracts disguises (noise) until it finds the new suspect. Case closed. Now imagine the "detective" living and solving crimes for years and years. It learns and studies everything — landscapes, objects, animals, people, anything at all. So when it needs to generate a suspect or an image, it remembers its training and creates an image. Deepfakes and faceswaps Many deepfake images and videos employ some type of face swapping technology. You've probably experienced this kind of technology already — faceswapping filters like on Snapchat, Instagram or Tiktok use technology similar to diffusion models, recognizing faces and replacing things in real time. "It will find the face in the image and then cut that out kind of, then take the face and convert it to its internal representation," Hansen said. The results are refined then repeated frame by frame. The future and becoming our own detectives As deepfakes become more and more realistic and tougher to detect, understanding how the technology works at a basic level can help us prepare for any dangers or misuse. Deepfakes have already been used to spread election disinformation, create fake explicit images of a teenager, even frame a principal with AI-created racist audio. "All the netizens on social media also have a role to play," Siwei Lyu said. Lyu is a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at the University of Buffalo's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the director of the Media Forensics Lab. His team has created a tool to help spot deepfakes called "DeepFake-o-meter." "We do not know how to handle, how to deal, with these kinds of problems. It's very new. And also requires technical knowledge to understand some of the subtleties there," Lyu said. "The media, the government, can play a very active role to improve user awareness and education. Especially for vulnerable groups like seniors, the kids, who will start to understand the social media world and start to become exposed to AI technologies. They can easily fall for AI magic or start using AI without knowing the limits." RELATED STORY | AI voice cloning: How programs are learning to pick up on pitch and tone Both Lyu and CivAI believe in exposure and education to help combat any potential misuse of deepfake technology. "Our overall goal is that we think AI is going t impact pretty much everyone in a lot of different ways," Hansen said. "And we think that everyone should be aware of the ways that it's going to change them because it's going to impact everyone." "More than just general education — just knowing the facts and having heard what's going to happen," he added. "We want to give people a really intuitive experience of what's going on." Hansen goes on to explain CivAI's role in educating the public. "We try and make all of our demonstrations personalized as much as possible. What we're working on is making it so people can see it themselves. So they know it's real, and they feel that it's real," Hansen said. "And they can have a deep gut level feel for tthe impact that it's going to have." "A big part of the solution is essentially just going to be education and sort of cultural changes," he added. "A lot of this synthetic content is sort of like a new virus that is attacking society right now, and people need to become immune to it in some ways. They need to be more suspicious about what's real and what's not, and I think that will help a lot as well."

Key leaders behind Google’s viral NotebookLM are leaving to create their own startupUnlock the Power of Geostatistics with Datamine’s Studio RM ProChris Sutton has lauded Celtic for grinding out an “enormous” win over Aberdeen to tighten their grip on the Scottish Premiership title. As the elements battered Pittodrie, it was Reo Hatate’s brilliant strike which finally broke the deadlock 12 minutes from time to end Aberdeen’s 100% home record and send the Hoops seven points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand. US defender Cameron Carter-Vickers picked up the Player of the Match award for his battling performance, putting in a vital block in the closing minutes to deny Ester Sokler from snatching a late equaliser for the Dons. Read more: Luis Palma Celtic transfer situation addressed amid MLS link Celtic UCL opponent in heartfelt message after 'wonderful' away day Sky Sports pundit Chris Sutton heaped praise on Brendan Rodgers ' side after what could prove to be a pivotal moment in the title race. “Enormous win for Celtic in wild conditions,” he wrote on X. “Celtic had to earn it. Aberdeen gave it their all and pushed them all the way. Hatate with a stunning winner. Taylor great assist. Carter-Vickers a giant at the back.” Enormous win for Celtic in wild conditions. Celtic had to earn it. Aberdeen gave it their all and pushed them all the way. Hatate with a stunning winner. Taylor great assist. Carter-Vickers a giant at the back👏👏 — Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) December 4, 2024 Celtic are the only team who remain unbeaten in the Scottish Premiership with 13 wins and a draw after 14 games. The Hoops take on Hibernian at Celtic Park on Saturday.

Stock market update: Nifty Bank index 0.41% in a weak market

UN expert: Myanmar's desperate military ramps up attacks including beheadings, rapes and tortureBlackRock Inc. stock underperforms Monday when compared to competitorsWASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans teed up a vote this week on bipartisan legislation to gradually expand by 66 the number of federal judgeships across the country. Democrats, though, are having second thoughts now that President-elect has won a second term. The White House said Tuesday that if President were presented with the bill, he would veto it. A Congress closely divided along party lines would be unlikely to overturn a veto, likely dooming the bill’s chances this year. It’s an abrupt reversal for legislation that the Senate passed unanimously in August. But the GOP-led House waited until after the election to act on the measure, which spreads out the establishment of the new district judgeships over about a decade to give three presidential administrations the chance to appoint the new judges. Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said the bill was negotiated with the understanding that three unknown, future presidents would have the chance to expand and shape the judiciary. No party would be knowingly given an advantage. He said he begged GOP leadership to take up the measure before the presidential election. But they did not do so. “It was a fair fight and they wanted no part of it,” Nadler said. Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, explained the timing this way: “We just didn’t get to the legislation.” The change of heart about the bill from some Democrats and the new urgency from House Republicans for considering it underscores the contentious politics that surrounded federal judicial vacancies. Senate roll-call votes are required for almost every judicial nominee these days, and most votes for the Supreme Court and appellate courts are now decided largely along party lines. Lawmakers are generally hesitant to hand presidents from the opposing party new opportunities to shape the judiciary. Nadler said that the bill would give Trump 25 judicial nominations on top of the 100-plus spots that are expected to open up over the next four years. “Donald Trump has made clear that he intends to expand the power of the presidency and giving him 25 new judges to appoint gives him one more tool at his disposal to do that,” Nadler said. Nadler said he’s willing to take up comparable legislation in the years ahead and give the additional judicial appointments to “unknown presidents yet to come,” but until then, he was urging colleagues to vote against the bill. Still, few are arguing against the merits. Congress last authorized a new district judgeship more than 20 years ago, while the number of cases being filed continues to increase with litigants often waiting years for a resolution. “I used to be a federal court litigator, and I can tell you it’s desperately needed,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said of the bill. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., first introduced the bill to establish new judgeships in 2020. Last year, the policy-making body for the federal court system, the Judicial Conference of the United States, the creation of several new district and court of appeals judgeships to meet increased workload demands in certain courts. “Judges work tirelessly every day to meet growing demands and resolve cases as quickly as possible, but with the volume we have and the shortage of judges we have, it just makes it a very difficult proposition,” Judge Timothy Corrigan, of the Middle District of Florida, said in a recent on the website of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. The blog post states that caseloads are creating delays that will erode public confidence in the judicial process, but the bill would meet many of the federal judiciary’s needs for more judges. Jordan said that as of June 30th, there were nearly 750,000 pending cases in federal district courts nationwide, with each judge handling an average of 554 filings. When asked if House Republicans would have brought the bill up if Vice President Kamala Harris had won the election, Jordan said the bill is “the right thing to do” and that almost half of the first batch of judges will come from states where both senators are Democrats, giving them a chance to provide input on those nominations before Trump makes them. But in its veto threat, the White House Office of Management and Budget said the bill would create new judgeships in states where senators have sought to hold open existing judicial vacancies. “These efforts to hold open vacancies suggest that concerns about judicial economy and caseload are not the true motivating force behind passage of the law,” the White House said. Shortly before the White House issued the veto threat, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would be curious to hear Biden’s rationale for such action. “It’s almost inconceivable that a lame-duck president could consider vetoing such an obviously prudential step for any reason other than selfish spite,” McConnell said.

Madison Metals Announces $2.0 Million Non-Brokered Private Placement

UL Solutions Recognized as an ESG Services Innovator by Independent Analyst FirmAppfolio CEO William Shane Trigg sells $1.09 million in stock

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