TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the six brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $26.00.

TU has been the subject of a number of research reports. Scotiabank raised TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com cut TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. National Bank Financial cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on TELUS in a research note on Monday. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of TU stock opened at $14.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The stock has a market cap of $21.08 billion, a PE ratio of 29.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $15.62 and a 200-day moving average of $15.94. TELUS has a one year low of $14.00 and a one year high of $18.55.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 4.56%. TELUS’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.19 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that TELUS will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.297 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.46%. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 253.19%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new position in TELUS during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $320,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,335,660 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $40,238,000 after buying an additional 177,953 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 13.5% in the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,666,500 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $44,785,000 after buying an additional 317,000 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC boosted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 38.5% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $7,839,000 after buying an additional 129,934 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of TELUS in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,509,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Company Profile

TELUS Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, provides a range of telecommunications and information technology products and services in Canada. It operates through Technology Solutions and Digitally-Led Customer Experiences segments. The Technology Solutions segment offers a range of telecommunications products and services; network services; healthcare services; mobile technologies equipment; data services, such as internet protocol; television; hosting, managed information technology, and cloud-based services; software, data management, and data analytics-driven smart food-chain and consumer goods technologies; home and business security; healthcare software and technology solutions; and voice and other telecommunications services, as well as mobile and fixed voice and data telecommunications services and products.