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

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the six research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Cormark cut shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating for the company. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. National Bank Financial cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Bank of America lowered TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st.

TELUS Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $14.27 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.20. TELUS has a 12-month low of $13.24 and a 12-month high of $17.27. The firm has a market cap of $21.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.13, a P/E/G ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 earned $0.10 earnings per share. Analysts predict that TELUS will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 226.53%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TU. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in shares of TELUS by 195,100.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951 shares in the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 1,756.0% in the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,807 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 4,548 shares during the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new position in shares of TELUS in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $120,000. Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of TELUS during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $142,000. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. bought a new stake in TELUS during the fourth quarter worth $146,000. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.