TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the five brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $26.00.

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on TU shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. National Bank Financial lowered TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Cormark cut shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its position in TELUS by 22.6% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 49,232,693 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $667,840,000 after purchasing an additional 9,068,181 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 28.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 30,219,141 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $409,662,000 after purchasing an additional 6,659,564 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of TELUS in the 4th quarter worth $70,212,000. National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of TELUS by 24.2% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $438,922,000 after acquiring an additional 5,094,269 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mufg Securities Canada LTD. increased its position in shares of TELUS by 68.9% during the 4th quarter. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. now owns 2,236,163 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $30,299,000 after purchasing an additional 912,277 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

TELUS Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of TU stock traded up $0.02 on Wednesday, hitting $15.41. 1,121,212 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,652,469. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $14.46 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $15.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.11 billion, a PE ratio of 31.44, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. TELUS has a twelve month low of $13.24 and a twelve month high of $17.77.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.10 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.34%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 224.49%.

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.