TELUS (NYSE:TU) Raised to Strong-Buy at Natl Bk Canada

Key Points

• TELUS (NYSE:TU) was upgraded by Natl Bk Canada from a "hold" to a "strong-buy" in a report issued Tuesday.
• Overall analyst sentiment remains mixed — one Strong Buy, two Buy, seven Hold and one Sell — producing a consensus rating of Hold and a $18.17 average price target.
• TELUS recently missed quarterly estimates (EPS $0.17 vs. $0.19 expected; revenue $3.67B vs. $3.77B) and the stock is trading near its 12‑month low (~$12.96), below its 50‑day ($14.95) and 200‑day ($15.76) moving averages.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T was upgraded by Natl Bk Canada from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

TU has been the topic of several other reports. National Bank Financial raised TELUS from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an "underweight" rating and set a $19.00 price objective (down from $22.00) on shares of TELUS in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of TELUS from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c)" rating on shares of TELUS in a report on Wednesday, November 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have assigned a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $18.17.

TELUS Price Performance

TU opened at $12.96 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $14.95 and a 200-day moving average price of $15.76. TELUS has a 12-month low of $12.87 and a 12-month high of $16.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $19.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.55, a PEG ratio of 6.66 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a current ratio of 0.76, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last posted its earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 5.71%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up .1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.28 earnings per share. Equities analysts predict that TELUS will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of TELUS

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of TU. Parvin Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS in the second quarter worth about $27,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in TELUS by 35.0% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,926 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 759 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in TELUS by 26.1% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,227 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $52,000 after acquiring an additional 667 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of TELUS by 169.6% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 3,658 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $59,000 after acquiring an additional 2,301 shares during the period. Finally, State of Wyoming purchased a new position in shares of TELUS during the second quarter worth approximately $61,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

About TELUS

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.

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