TELUS (NYSE:TU) Rating Increased to Sector Outperform at Scotiabank

Scotiabank upgraded shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) from a sector perform rating to a sector outperform rating in a research note released on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on TU. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, September 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of TU opened at $16.16 on Monday. TELUS has a 12-month low of $14.63 and a 12-month high of $19.14. The company has a current ratio of 0.66, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. The company has a market cap of $24.10 billion, a PE ratio of 40.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.74. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $16.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.14.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.09. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.50% and a net margin of 3.87%. The business had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.14 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that TELUS will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th were issued a dividend of $0.284 per share. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.03%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 10th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 287.50%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TELUS

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Gold Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of TELUS by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 93,275 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. grew its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 653 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its position in shares of TELUS by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 954 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont lifted its stake in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,218 shares during the period. Finally, Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of TELUS during the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

About TELUS

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.