TELUS (NYSE:TU) Downgraded by TD Securities to Hold

TD Securities lowered shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Thursday, Marketbeat reports.

TU has been the subject of several other research reports. Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of TELUS in a research report on Tuesday, February 17th. Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Bank of America raised shares of TELUS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $14.50 to $16.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, National Bank Financial reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of TELUS in a report on Thursday, December 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.63.

TELUS Price Performance

NYSE:TU opened at $12.87 on Thursday. TELUS has a 52-week low of $12.54 and a 52-week high of $16.74. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $13.56 and a 200 day moving average of $13.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.65, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 0.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.94 and a beta of 0.68.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.15 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.18 by ($0.03). The company had revenue of $3.83 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.85 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.42% and a net margin of 5.42%.During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.25 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that TELUS will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.4184 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.0%. TELUS’s payout ratio is presently 236.54%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in TELUS by 1.5% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 36,863,219 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $580,740,000 after purchasing an additional 550,574 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in TELUS by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 33,318,398 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $433,838,000 after purchasing an additional 955,779 shares during the period. FIL Ltd raised its stake in TELUS by 112.9% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 30,300,204 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $399,352,000 after buying an additional 16,066,539 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 3.2% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,470,046 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $388,415,000 after buying an additional 916,459 shares during the period. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 258.3% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 19,816,565 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $261,727,000 after buying an additional 14,285,486 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

About TELUS

TELUS Corporation (NYSE: TU) is a Canadian telecommunications and technology company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It delivers a broad portfolio of consumer and business communications services across Canada, including mobile wireless, fixed-line voice, broadband internet, and television. TELUS also provides a range of enterprise services such as cloud and IT solutions, managed network services, cybersecurity and Internet of Things (IoT) offerings for business customers.

Beyond core connectivity, TELUS has expanded into health and digital services.