TELUS (NYSE:TU) Lowered to Hold at Canaccord Genuity Group

Canaccord Genuity Group lowered shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Tuesday, Zacks.com reports.

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of TELUS from a hold rating to a sell rating in a research report on Friday, June 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $27.33.

TELUS Price Performance

TELUS stock remained flat at $16.40 during mid-day trading on Tuesday. 1,076,819 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,296,861. TELUS has a 12 month low of $14.63 and a 12 month high of $19.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.70. The company has a market cap of $24.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.05, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 0.73. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.82 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.44.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $3.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. TELUS had a net margin of 3.87% and a return on equity of 8.50%. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.14 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that TELUS will post 0.74 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be issued a $0.284 dividend. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.93%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 10th. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 292.32%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On TELUS

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hanson & Doremus Investment Management purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at $33,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $41,000 after acquiring an additional 954 shares during the period. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 39.8% in the 1st quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 2,752 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $44,000 after acquiring an additional 784 shares during the period. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the 1st quarter valued at $58,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.