TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $21.50.

TU has been the topic of several research reports. Cormark downgraded shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. National Bankshares reissued a “sector perform” rating on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Canaccord Genuity Group raised their price objective on shares of TELUS from $20.25 to $21.50 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st.

Institutional Trading of TELUS

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TU. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 71.9% in the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,321 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 971 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. increased its holdings in TELUS by 112,425.0% during the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 4,501 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 4,497 shares in the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in TELUS by 1,756.0% during the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,807 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 4,548 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. purchased a new position in TELUS during the 4th quarter valued at about $120,000. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont increased its holdings in TELUS by 10.5% during the 1st quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 8,423 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $121,000 after acquiring an additional 800 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Trading Up 0.5%

NYSE TU opened at $15.78 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $14.81 and its 200 day moving average price is $14.81. The company has a market capitalization of $23.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.73. TELUS has a 12 month low of $13.24 and a 12 month high of $17.27.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 10th will be paid a $0.2989 dividend. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 10th. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 234.69%.

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.