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

National Bank Financial cut shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research note published on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports.

A number of other equities analysts have also weighed in on the company. StockNews.com lowered TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of TU stock opened at $14.55 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.70 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.97. TELUS has a fifty-two week low of $14.40 and a fifty-two week high of $18.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.11. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The company had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that TELUS will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors 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 8.16%. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is presently 253.20%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its stake in shares of TELUS by 3.0% in the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 41,711,861 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $631,310,000 after purchasing an additional 1,208,720 shares in the last quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in TELUS by 6.6% in the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 38,193,733 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $578,253,000 after acquiring an additional 2,365,753 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its holdings 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. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in TELUS by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 22,404,617 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $338,953,000 after acquiring an additional 387,686 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp lifted its position in TELUS by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 16,882,528 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $283,854,000 after buying an additional 211,815 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

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.