TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Receives Average Recommendation of "Hold" from Analysts

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T has been given a consensus rating of "Hold" by the six research firms that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company.

TU has been the subject of a number of research reports. StockNews.com raised shares of TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Bank of America downgraded shares of TELUS from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Finally, Cormark cut shares of TELUS from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in TELUS by 195,100.0% in the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in TELUS by 71.9% during the first quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,321 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 971 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its position in TELUS by 112,425.0% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 4,501 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $64,000 after purchasing an additional 4,497 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its position in TELUS by 1,756.0% in the fourth quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,807 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 4,548 shares during the period. Finally, Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new position in TELUS during the 4th quarter valued at $120,000. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Up 0.8 %

TU stock traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $15.20. 196,499 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,849,752. TELUS has a 12-month low of $13.24 and a 12-month high of $17.27. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.02, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.70. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $14.86 and a 200-day moving average price of $14.88.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 9.07%. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th were paid a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS's payout ratio is 226.53%.

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.