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

Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) have earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price 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 analyst reports. StockNews.com lowered shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank raised TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of TU stock opened at $13.65 on Tuesday. TELUS has a one year low of $13.24 and a one year high of $18.55. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $14.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.64. The firm has a market cap of $20.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.69.

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

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were issued a dividend of $0.297 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.70%. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently 253.19%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TU. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in TELUS by 6.6% in the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 38,193,733 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $578,253,000 after buying an additional 2,365,753 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of TELUS by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $438,922,000 after acquiring an additional 5,094,269 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp grew its position in shares of TELUS by 1.3% in the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 16,882,528 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $283,854,000 after purchasing an additional 211,815 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank raised its position in shares of TELUS by 5.4% during the second 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. Finally, Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its position in TELUS by 0.7% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,701,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $112,610,000 after purchasing an additional 49,088 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.