TELUS (NYSE:TU) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Time to Sell?

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) shares hit a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $13.74 and last traded at $13.87, with a volume of 4863981 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $14.05.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on TU. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Scotiabank raised shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com cut shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, National Bank Financial lowered shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, TELUS currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.69. The stock has a market cap of $20.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.51, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $15.58 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.92.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data 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. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 4.56%. The firm had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.19 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a $0.297 dividend. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is 253.19%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in TU. Gold Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in TELUS by 0.7% during the second quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 93,275 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares during the period. Walter Public Investments Inc. increased its stake in TELUS by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 37,453 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $567,000 after buying an additional 653 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in TELUS by 60.4% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 954 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont boosted its position in TELUS by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $128,000 after buying an additional 1,218 shares during the period. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 2.0% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 77,198 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,297,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.