TELUS’s (TU) Sector Perform Rating Reaffirmed at Scotiabank

Scotiabank restated their sector perform rating on shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in a research report sent to investors on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a $26.00 price objective on the Wireless communications provider’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $28.00.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on TU. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of TELUS from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an outperform rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 12th. StockNews.com raised shares of TELUS from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of TELUS from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, January 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, TELUS has an average rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $27.72.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of TU stock opened at $16.01 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $23.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.22, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.67. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $17.40 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.36. TELUS has a 52 week low of $15.47 and a 52 week high of $21.34.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 9th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $5.20 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.24 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 4.18% and a return on equity of 7.81%. TELUS’s revenue was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.17 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that TELUS will post 0.78 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 1st. Investors of record on Monday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2793 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.98%. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 8th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 258.14%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Capital Research Global Investors increased its position in TELUS by 215.8% during the 4th 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 increased its position in TELUS by 18.4% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 40,669,392 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $727,275,000 after purchasing an additional 6,334,692 shares in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in TELUS during the 4th quarter worth approximately $109,327,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in TELUS during the 4th quarter worth approximately $91,279,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in TELUS by 8.3% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 59,637,886 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,149,047,000 after purchasing an additional 4,574,843 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.