Analysts Set TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Target Price at $26.00

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the five analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $26.00.

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. StockNews.com cut shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. National Bank Financial lowered TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Scotiabank upgraded TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating for the company.

TELUS Stock Performance

TU stock opened at $13.91 on Tuesday. The business has a 50 day moving average of $14.81 and a 200-day moving average of $15.66. The firm has a market cap of $20.87 billion, a PE ratio of 29.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.74. TELUS has a 12-month low of $13.24 and a 12-month high of $18.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.69 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50.

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

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were given a dividend of $0.297 per share. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.54%. This is a positive change from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 253.19%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TELUS

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Barclays PLC increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 38.5% during the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $7,839,000 after buying an additional 129,934 shares during the period. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board boosted its holdings in TELUS by 159.6% in 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 acquiring an additional 86,393 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in TELUS by 192.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $22,257,000 after purchasing an additional 872,235 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP bought a new position in TELUS in the 3rd quarter worth $945,000. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 5.4% in the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,472,610 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $188,835,000 after purchasing an additional 636,845 shares during the period. 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.