TELUS (NYSE:TU) Stock Price Up 3.8% – Still a Buy?

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T)’s share price traded up 3.8% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $14.49 and last traded at $14.53. 2,655,730 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 3% from the average session volume of 2,736,949 shares. The stock had previously closed at $13.99.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Cormark downgraded TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Bank of America cut TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, TELUS has an average rating of “Hold”.

TELUS Stock Down 0.4 %

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $14.89 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.12. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.70.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.10 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.81%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 226.53%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TU. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in TELUS by 21.1% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,515,242 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $25,447,000 after acquiring an additional 264,055 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in TELUS by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 42,341 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $710,000 after purchasing an additional 2,964 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its holdings in TELUS by 192.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $22,257,000 after purchasing an additional 872,235 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in TELUS by 188.7% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 135,825 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $2,279,000 after buying an additional 88,771 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its position in TELUS by 2.0% during the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 77,198 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,297,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.