TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Receives $26.00 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the six research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $26.00.

TU has been the topic of several recent research reports. Scotiabank raised TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of TELUS in a research note on Monday. They issued an “equal weight” rating for the company. StockNews.com cut shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, National Bank Financial lowered shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th.

TELUS Stock Down 0.9 %

Shares of TELUS stock opened at $13.75 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.53 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.91. TELUS has a 12-month low of $13.69 and a 12-month high of $18.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The company has a market cap of $20.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.26, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.11. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The company had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.19 earnings per share. TELUS’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.73 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.297 dividend. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.64%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 253.19%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TELUS

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in TELUS by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $7,839,000 after acquiring an additional 129,934 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board lifted its position in TELUS by 159.6% during the third quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 140,539 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $2,360,000 after purchasing an additional 86,393 shares during the period. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in TELUS by 192.0% in 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 last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in TELUS in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $945,000. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank raised its stake in TELUS by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,472,610 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $188,835,000 after buying an additional 636,845 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

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.