Bank of America Downgrades TELUS (NYSE:TU) to Neutral

Bank of America downgraded shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research note published on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on TU. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Cormark downgraded TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Trading Down 4.9 %

Shares of TU stock opened at $13.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. TELUS has a 52-week low of $13.24 and a 52-week high of $17.27. The company has a market capitalization of $21.10 billion, a PE ratio of 28.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The business’s fifty day moving average is $14.84 and its 200 day moving average is $15.30.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.10 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be issued a $0.2829 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.12%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is currently 226.53%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,951 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 4,548 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the fourth quarter worth about $120,000. Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the fourth quarter worth about $142,000. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the fourth quarter worth about $146,000. 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.