TELUS (NYSE:TU) Upgraded to Outperform at National Bank Financial

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) was upgraded by investment analysts at National Bank Financial from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and set a $19.00 price target (down from $22.00) on shares of TELUS in a report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of TELUS in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of TELUS from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $18.17.

TELUS Price Performance

TU stock opened at $13.56 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 0.76 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The company’s 50-day moving average is $15.23 and its 200-day moving average is $15.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.81 billion, a PE ratio of 24.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.71. TELUS has a 1 year low of $13.24 and a 1 year high of $16.74.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.02). TELUS had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 5.71%.The firm had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.77 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.28 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that TELUS will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of TELUS by 18.9% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 474,054 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $6,798,000 after purchasing an additional 75,452 shares in the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in TELUS by 33.1% during the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 49,491 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $710,000 after acquiring an additional 12,300 shares in the last quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its holdings in TELUS by 13.7% in the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 13,190 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $189,000 after purchasing an additional 1,590 shares during the period. Ninepoint Partners LP increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 3.4% during the first quarter. Ninepoint Partners LP now owns 198,927 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $2,853,000 after purchasing an additional 6,575 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 54.9% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 45,258 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $649,000 after purchasing an additional 16,046 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.