TELUS (NYSE:TU) Upgraded at Canaccord Genuity Group

Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat reports.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on TU. Natl Bk Canada raised shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated an “underweight” rating and issued a $19.00 target price (down previously from $22.00) on shares of TELUS in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. National Bank Financial upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. Barclays dropped their price target 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. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of TELUS in a report on Monday, December 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.17.

TELUS Price Performance

TELUS stock opened at $13.53 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.76. TELUS has a 52 week low of $12.80 and a 52 week high of $16.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 0.66. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $14.53 and a 200-day moving average of $15.62.

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

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.4184 per share. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 12.4%. This is a boost from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 216.36%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of TELUS by 54.9% in the 1st 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. LPL Financial LLC lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 7.6% in the first quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 300,831 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $4,314,000 after acquiring an additional 21,304 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 49.4% in the first quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 61,181 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $877,000 after acquiring an additional 20,235 shares during the period. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in TELUS by 65.0% in the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 13,854 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $199,000 after acquiring an additional 5,456 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in TELUS by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,185,917 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $375,585,000 after purchasing an additional 384,510 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is owned by 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.