TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) have been given an average rating of “Hold” by the ten research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $17.6250.

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank cut shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Bank of America upgraded shares of TELUS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $14.50 to $16.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of TELUS in a report on Friday, March 27th. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday, February 21st.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of TU stock opened at $12.08 on Thursday. TELUS has a 52-week low of $11.69 and a 52-week high of $16.74. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65. The stock has a market cap of $18.70 billion, a PE ratio of 23.22, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.68. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $13.75.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.03). TELUS had a return on equity of 8.42% and a net margin of 5.42%.The company had revenue of $3.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.85 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.25 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that TELUS will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th were paid a $0.4184 dividend. This represents a $1.67 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 13.9%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently 236.54%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of TU. FIL Ltd grew its holdings in TELUS by 112.9% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 30,300,204 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $399,352,000 after purchasing an additional 16,066,539 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 258.3% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 19,816,565 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $261,727,000 after buying an additional 14,285,486 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of TELUS during the 4th quarter worth approximately $83,707,000. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 19.0% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 17,536,356 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $231,118,000 after buying an additional 2,798,034 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 40.0% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 9,033,455 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $142,387,000 after buying an additional 2,583,074 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Company Profile

TELUS Corporation (NYSE: TU) is a Canadian telecommunications and technology company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It delivers a broad portfolio of consumer and business communications services across Canada, including mobile wireless, fixed-line voice, broadband internet, and television. TELUS also provides a range of enterprise services such as cloud and IT solutions, managed network services, cybersecurity and Internet of Things (IoT) offerings for business customers.

Beyond core connectivity, TELUS has expanded into health and digital services.