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

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

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the company. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Cormark downgraded TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $13.94 on Friday. TELUS has a twelve month low of $13.24 and a twelve month high of $17.27. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $14.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.30. The company has a market capitalization of $21.10 billion, a PE ratio of 28.44, 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.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that TELUS will post 0.71 EPS for the current 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 $0.2829 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.12%. TELUS’s payout ratio is 226.53%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On TELUS

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in TU. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 22.6% during the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 49,232,693 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $667,840,000 after acquiring an additional 9,068,181 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 28.3% during the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 30,219,141 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $409,662,000 after acquiring an additional 6,659,564 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of TELUS during the fourth quarter worth $70,212,000. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 24.2% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Finally, Mufg Securities Canada LTD. lifted its position in shares of TELUS by 68.9% during the fourth quarter. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. now owns 2,236,163 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $30,299,000 after acquiring an additional 912,277 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.