TELUS (NYSE:TU) Coverage Initiated at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in a research note released on Monday. The firm issued an equal weight rating on the Wireless communications provider’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on TU. StockNews.com lowered TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.00.

TELUS Trading Down 1.3 %

TU stock opened at $13.87 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $20.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $15.58 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.92. TELUS has a one year low of $13.74 and a one year high of $18.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. TELUS’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.19 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.73 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Trading of TELUS

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of TELUS during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake 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 valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 954 shares during the last quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont raised its holdings in shares of TELUS by 19.0% during the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $128,000 after buying an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of TELUS during the 2nd quarter worth $123,000. Finally, Unique Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in TELUS in the second quarter valued at about $141,000. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.