Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (NYSE:TDS) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Telephone and Data Systems, Inc. (NYSE:TDS) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the five analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $53.3333.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Telephone and Data Systems from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 18th. Raymond James Financial downgraded Telephone and Data Systems from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Telephone and Data Systems from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 30th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Telephone and Data Systems

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Telephone and Data Systems by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,482,147 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $272,898,000 after purchasing an additional 90,097 shares in the last quarter. Carronade Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Telephone and Data Systems by 10.0% in the first quarter. Carronade Capital Management LP now owns 4,623,934 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $194,668,000 after buying an additional 420,340 shares in the last quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP lifted its stake in Telephone and Data Systems by 16.4% in the first quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP now owns 4,292,243 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $180,703,000 after buying an additional 603,857 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Telephone and Data Systems by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,049,385 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $166,025,000 after buying an additional 58,439 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Telephone and Data Systems by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,415,553 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $99,053,000 after buying an additional 66,814 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 80.00% of the company’s stock.

Telephone and Data Systems Stock Performance

Shares of TDS stock opened at $34.92 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $3.97 billion, a PE ratio of 65.88 and a beta of 0.30. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $40.07 and a 200-day moving average of $42.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 3.43 and a quick ratio of 3.42. Telephone and Data Systems has a one year low of $34.75 and a one year high of $49.12.

Telephone and Data Systems (NYSE:TDS) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.87) by $1.98. Telephone and Data Systems had a net margin of 6.15% and a return on equity of 5.54%. The firm had revenue of $309.45 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $313.27 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.09) earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Telephone and Data Systems will post 0.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Telephone and Data Systems Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 16th were given a dividend of $0.04 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 16th. This represents a $0.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Telephone and Data Systems’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 30.19%.

Telephone and Data Systems Company Profile

Telephone and Data Systems, Inc (NYSE: TDS) is a diversified telecommunications company headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Through its subsidiaries, the company provides a broad array of communications services, including wireless voice and data, wireline broadband and voice, cable television, and managed IT and cloud solutions. Its two primary operating units—TDS Telecom and U.S. Cellular—serve residential, business and wholesale customers across the United States.

TDS Telecom focuses on delivering broadband internet, digital voice, video and data communications services in primarily rural and suburban markets.