Morgan Stanley Begins Coverage on TELUS (NYSE:TU)

Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning. The brokerage issued an equal weight rating on the Wireless communications provider’s stock.

TU has been the topic of a number of other reports. StockNews.com downgraded shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank raised shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, TELUS currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

TELUS Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE TU opened at $14.40 on Monday. TELUS has a 1-year low of $14.33 and a 1-year high of $18.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The company has a market capitalization of $21.60 billion, a PE ratio of 30.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $15.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.95.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.19 earnings per share. TELUS’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm 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 dividend of $0.297 per share. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.25%. 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 presently 253.20%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TELUS

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its holdings in TELUS by 159.6% during the third quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 140,539 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $2,360,000 after acquiring an additional 86,393 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 872,235 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new stake in shares of TELUS in the third quarter valued at about $945,000. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 5.4% in 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 period. Finally, Nicola Wealth Management LTD. lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 35.7% in the third quarter. Nicola Wealth Management LTD. now owns 1,060,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $17,801,000 after buying an additional 279,000 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.