Analysts Set TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Price Target at $26.00

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the five ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $26.00.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on TU shares. StockNews.com lowered shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank upgraded TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Finally, National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday.

TELUS Stock Down 1.4 %

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 price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.69. TELUS has a one year low of $14.40 and a one year high of $18.68.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted 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 business had revenue of $5.10 billion during 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.19 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that TELUS will post 0.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a $0.297 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.16%. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 253.20%.

Institutional Trading of TELUS

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Gold Investment Management Ltd. boosted its holdings in TELUS by 0.7% in the second 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. grew its position in TELUS by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 37,453 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $567,000 after purchasing an additional 653 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in TELUS by 60.4% during 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 raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 19.0% in the third quarter. Trust Co. of Vermont now owns 7,623 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $128,000 after purchasing an additional 1,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its stake 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 valued at $1,297,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.