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

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) has been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the six analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company.

TU has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Cormark downgraded TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. National Bank Financial cut shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st.

TELUS Stock Down 0.1 %

TU opened at $14.27 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $14.87 and a 200-day moving average of $15.20. TELUS has a fifty-two week low of $13.24 and a fifty-two week high of $17.27. The company has a market capitalization 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.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 9.07%. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.10 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that TELUS will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 21.1% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,515,242 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $25,447,000 after buying an additional 264,055 shares during the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its position in TELUS by 15.4% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 390,486 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $6,558,000 after acquiring an additional 52,105 shares during the last quarter. Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in TELUS by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 42,341 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $710,000 after purchasing an additional 2,964 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its position in TELUS by 192.0% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $22,257,000 after purchasing an additional 872,235 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in shares of TELUS by 188.7% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 135,825 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $2,279,000 after purchasing an additional 88,771 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.