TELUS (NYSE:TU) Downgraded by Bank of America to “Neutral”

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) was downgraded by investment analysts at Bank of America from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports.

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

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $14.66 on Friday. TELUS has a 52-week low of $13.24 and a 52-week high of $17.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.91, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $14.83 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.32.

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of TU. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 1,951 shares in the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 4,548 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new position in shares of TELUS during the 4th quarter valued at about $120,000. Blueshift Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of TELUS in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $142,000. Finally, Triasima Portfolio Management inc. acquired a new stake in TELUS in the 4th quarter worth approximately $146,000. 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.