TELUS (NYSE:TU) Shares Down 4.8% – What’s Next?

Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) fell 4.8% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $13.88 and last traded at $13.95. 2,598,217 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 4% from the average session volume of 2,713,143 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.65.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages recently weighed in on TU. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America downgraded TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Cormark downgraded TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

TELUS Trading Down 4.9 %

The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.84 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market cap of $21.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.44, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.10 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a $0.2829 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.12%. TELUS’s payout ratio is 226.53%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TELUS

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 22.6% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 49,232,693 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $667,840,000 after buying an additional 9,068,181 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 28.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 30,219,141 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $409,662,000 after buying an additional 6,659,564 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 24.2% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $438,922,000 after buying an additional 5,094,269 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,801,407 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $349,841,000 after buying an additional 903,921 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in TELUS by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,993,662 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $149,074,000 after purchasing an additional 326,531 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

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.