TELUS (NYSE:TU) Shares Down 4.8% – What’s Next?

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) shares fell 4.8% during mid-day trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $13.88 and last traded at $13.95. 2,598,217 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 4% from the average session volume of 2,713,143 shares. The stock had previously closed at $14.65.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on TU. National Bank Financial cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Bank of America cut TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Cormark cut TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The firm has a market cap of $21.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.44, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $14.84 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.30.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 previous year, the business posted $0.10 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of TELUS by 22.6% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 49,232,693 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $667,840,000 after purchasing an additional 9,068,181 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia increased its position in shares of TELUS by 28.3% during the 4th quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 30,219,141 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $409,662,000 after purchasing an additional 6,659,564 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 24.2% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $438,922,000 after acquiring an additional 5,094,269 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,801,407 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $349,841,000 after acquiring an additional 903,921 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 10,993,662 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $149,074,000 after acquiring an additional 326,531 shares during the last quarter. 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.