Analysts Set TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) PT at $21.50

Key Points

• TELUS Corporation has received a consensus recommendation of "Hold" from analysts, with an average price target of $21.50.
• The company recently declared a quarterly dividend of $0.3019 per share, representing a 7.4% yield, which is an increase from the previous dividend.
• TELUS reported earnings of $0.16 per share for the quarter, missing estimates, despite revenue rising 2.2% year-over-year to $3.74 billion.

TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T has been assigned an average recommendation of "Hold" from the seven analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $21.50.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. National Bankshares reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Scotiabank reaffirmed an "outperform" rating on shares of TELUS in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group increased their target price on TELUS from $20.25 to $21.50 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th.

TELUS Stock Performance

NYSE:TU traded up $0.07 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $16.51. 2,678,941 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,945,915. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 0.86 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.72. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.64. TELUS has a 52 week low of $13.24 and a 52 week high of $17.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.88, a P/E/G ratio of 4.85 and a beta of 0.73.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 1st. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.17 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $3.74 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.63 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 4.67%.The company's revenue for the quarter was up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.25 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that TELUS will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be given a $0.3019 dividend. This is a boost from TELUS's previous quarterly dividend of $0.30. This represents a $1.21 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 10th. TELUS's dividend payout ratio is 263.04%.

Institutional Trading of TELUS

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in TELUS by 22.6% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 49,232,693 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $667,840,000 after acquiring an additional 9,068,181 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in TELUS by 196.2% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 11,836,479 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $169,735,000 after acquiring an additional 7,840,264 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in TELUS during the 2nd quarter valued at $77,455,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in TELUS by 114.3% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,450,381 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $103,624,000 after acquiring an additional 3,439,940 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in TELUS by 1,981,964.7% during the 2nd quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 3,428,972 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $54,969,000 after acquiring an additional 3,428,799 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

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.