TELUS (NYSE:TU) Now Covered by Analysts at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning. The brokerage issued an equal weight rating on the Wireless communications provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. StockNews.com downgraded TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Scotiabank upgraded TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $14.40 on Monday. TELUS has a 1 year low of $14.33 and a 1 year high of $18.55. The firm has a market cap of $21.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.64, a PEG ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a current ratio of 0.69. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $15.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.95.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 4.56%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.19 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.297 per share. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio is 253.20%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TELUS

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of TELUS during the 3rd quarter valued at $320,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in TELUS by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,335,660 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $40,238,000 after purchasing an additional 177,953 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. raised its stake in TELUS by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,666,500 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $44,785,000 after purchasing an additional 317,000 shares during the period. Barclays PLC raised its stake in TELUS by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $7,839,000 after purchasing an additional 129,934 shares during the period. Finally, Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio acquired a new stake in TELUS during the 3rd quarter valued at $1,509,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.