TELUS (NYSE:TU) Upgraded by National Bank Financial to Outperform Rating

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) was upgraded by analysts at National Bank Financial from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday.

TU has been the subject of a number of other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated an “underweight” rating and issued a $19.00 price target (down from $22.00) on shares of TELUS in a research report on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of TELUS in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on TELUS from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $18.17.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of TELUS stock opened at $13.56 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $15.23 and its 200 day moving average is $15.84. TELUS has a one year low of $13.24 and a one year high of $16.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market cap of $20.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.66, a P/E/G ratio of 6.02 and a beta of 0.71.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.19 by ($0.02). TELUS had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 5.71%.The company had revenue of $3.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.77 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TELUS

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in TELUS by 18.9% during the 1st quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 474,054 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $6,798,000 after buying an additional 75,452 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in TELUS by 33.1% during the 1st quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 49,491 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $710,000 after purchasing an additional 12,300 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 13.7% during the first quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 13,190 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $189,000 after buying an additional 1,590 shares during the period. Ninepoint Partners LP raised its stake in TELUS by 3.4% in the first quarter. Ninepoint Partners LP now owns 198,927 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $2,853,000 after buying an additional 6,575 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 54.9% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 45,258 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $649,000 after buying an additional 16,046 shares during the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.