TELUS (NYSE:TU) Sets New 12-Month Low – Should You Sell?

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) hit a new 52-week low during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $14.42 and last traded at $14.43, with a volume of 356123 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $14.75.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

TU has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Scotiabank upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Down 1.9 %

The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $15.74 and its 200-day moving average is $15.98. The company has a market cap of $21.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.81, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 0.73.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.11. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The firm had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.297 per share. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.21%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is presently 253.20%.

Institutional Trading of TELUS

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board grew its position in TELUS by 159.6% during the third quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 140,539 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $2,360,000 after buying an additional 86,393 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its position in TELUS by 192.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $22,257,000 after buying an additional 872,235 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in TELUS during the third quarter valued at about $945,000. Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its holdings in TELUS by 5.4% during the second quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,472,610 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $188,835,000 after purchasing an additional 636,845 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nicola Wealth Management LTD. lifted its holdings in TELUS by 35.7% during the third quarter. Nicola Wealth Management LTD. now owns 1,060,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $17,801,000 after purchasing an additional 279,000 shares during 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.