TELUS (NYSE:TU) Rating Increased to Hold at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Friday.

Separately, Canaccord Genuity Group lowered shares of TELUS from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $27.33.

TELUS Price Performance

TU stock opened at $17.03 on Friday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $15.97 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.19. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. The stock has a market cap of $25.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.65, a PEG ratio of 2.57 and a beta of 0.74. TELUS has a fifty-two week low of $14.63 and a fifty-two week high of $19.14.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.09. TELUS had a net margin of 3.87% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The firm had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.14 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.284 per share. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.67%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 10th. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 287.18%.

Institutional Trading of TELUS

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital Research Global Investors boosted its position in TELUS by 215.8% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 22,214,210 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $395,314,000 after purchasing an additional 15,179,110 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in TELUS by 18.4% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 40,669,392 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $727,275,000 after acquiring an additional 6,334,692 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of TELUS in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $109,327,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in TELUS during the fourth quarter worth $82,775,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in TELUS by 15.5% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 28,705,377 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $511,646,000 after purchasing an additional 3,860,487 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

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.