TELUS (NYSE:TU) Sets New 1-Year Low – Should You Sell?

TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T)’s stock price reached a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $13.24 and last traded at $13.45, with a volume of 3495834 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $13.49.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on TU. Scotiabank upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. StockNews.com cut TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, National Bank Financial lowered TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $15.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 0.73.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.17 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $5.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.69 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.80% and a net margin of 4.56%. The company’s revenue was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.19 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.297 dividend. This is an increase from TELUS’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 8.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is 253.19%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Barclays PLC lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 38.5% in 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 in the last quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board raised its holdings in shares of TELUS by 159.6% in the 3rd quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board now owns 140,539 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $2,360,000 after acquiring an additional 86,393 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its position in TELUS by 192.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $22,257,000 after acquiring an additional 872,235 shares in the last quarter. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new position in TELUS during the 3rd quarter valued at about $945,000. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank increased its holdings in TELUS by 5.4% during 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 in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.