StockNews.com Downgrades TELUS (NYSE:TU) to Sell

StockNews.com lowered shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research note released on Thursday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on TU. Canaccord Genuity Group lowered TELUS from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Scotiabank raised shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, TELUS currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Down 1.2 %

TU stock opened at $15.32 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $22.86 billion, a PE ratio of 32.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 0.75. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.11 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.08. TELUS has a fifty-two week low of $14.63 and a fifty-two week high of $19.14. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. TELUS’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a $0.297 dividend. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.75%. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 244.69%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Fairscale Capital LLC bought a new position in TELUS during the second quarter valued at about $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in TELUS by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 954 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 1st quarter valued at about $58,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the 2nd quarter valued at about $123,000. Finally, Trust Co. of Vermont raised its holdings in shares of TELUS by 19.0% in the 3rd quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 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.