TELUS (NYSE:TU) Rating Lowered to “Sector Perform” at National Bank Financial

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) was downgraded by equities researchers at National Bank Financial from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note issued on Friday, MarketBeat reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. StockNews.com lowered 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 report on Monday, October 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Performance

NYSE TU opened at $14.55 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $21.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.96, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73. TELUS has a twelve month low of $14.40 and a twelve month high of $18.68. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.97. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.19 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that TELUS will post 0.73 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TELUS

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of TU. Gold Investment Management Ltd. boosted its position in shares of TELUS by 0.7% during the 2nd quarter. Gold Investment Management Ltd. now owns 93,275 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,412,000 after purchasing an additional 641 shares in the last quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in TELUS by 1.8% in the second quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 37,453 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $567,000 after acquiring an additional 653 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in TELUS by 60.4% in the second 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 period. Trust Co. of Vermont increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 19.0% during the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $128,000 after acquiring an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 77,198 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,297,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 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.