Canaccord Genuity Group Upgrades TELUS (NYSE:TU) to “Buy”

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Canaccord Genuity Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Thursday, MarketBeat Ratings reports.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of TELUS from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, November 10th. National Bank Financial raised shares of TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 19th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of TELUS in a research note on Monday. Natl Bk Canada upgraded TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued an “underweight” rating and issued a $19.00 price target (down from $22.00) on shares of TELUS in a report on Tuesday, November 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.17.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $13.53 on Thursday. TELUS has a 1 year low of $12.80 and a 1 year high of $16.74. The company has a market capitalization of $20.76 billion, a PE ratio of 24.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.15 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.47, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.76. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $14.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.62.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 7th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $3.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.77 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.76% and a net margin of 5.71%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up .1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.28 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that TELUS will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of TELUS

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of TU. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in TELUS by 26.1% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,227 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $52,000 after acquiring an additional 667 shares in the last quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. boosted its stake in TELUS by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Walter Public Investments Inc. now owns 39,334 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $619,000 after buying an additional 750 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of TELUS by 7.0% during the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 11,483 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $181,000 after purchasing an additional 755 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its holdings in TELUS by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,926 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $46,000 after purchasing an additional 759 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of TELUS by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 46,099 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $739,000 after acquiring an additional 841 shares during the period. 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.