TELUS (NYSE:TU) Cut to “Neutral” at Bank of America

Bank of America cut shares of TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) from a buy rating to a neutral rating in a research report released on Friday morning, MarketBeat reports.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on TU. StockNews.com raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Cormark downgraded shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. National Bank Financial lowered shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $26.00.

TELUS Price Performance

TU opened at $13.94 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $14.84 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.29. TELUS has a one year low of $13.24 and a one year high of $17.27.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TELUS

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its position in shares of TELUS by 195,100.0% during the fourth quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,951 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in TELUS by 1,756.0% during the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,807 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 4,548 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new stake in TELUS during the 4th quarter worth approximately $120,000. Blueshift Asset Management LLC bought a new position in TELUS in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $142,000. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. acquired a new position in shares of TELUS in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $146,000. 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.