Insider Buying: TELUS (TSE:T) Director Buys C$60,149.70 in Stock

TELUS Co. (TSE:T) (NYSE:TU) Director Hazel Cynthia Claxton bought 3,445 shares of TELUS stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 24th. The stock was purchased at an average cost of C$17.46 per share, with a total value of C$60,149.70. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 8,403 shares in the company, valued at C$146,716.38. This represents a 69.48% increase in their position.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of TSE:T opened at C$19.02 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of C$29.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.85. TELUS Co. has a 1-year low of C$17.26 and a 1-year high of C$23.29. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is C$18.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$20.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.41, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.52.

TELUS (TSE:T) (NYSE:TU) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 7th. The company reported C$0.24 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of C$5.07 billion for the quarter. TELUS had a net margin of 4.62% and a return on equity of 5.80%. Research analysts expect that TELUS Co. will post 1.2267985 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on T shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered TELUS from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from C$22.00 to C$19.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on TELUS from C$25.00 to C$20.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from C$23.00 to C$19.00 in a report on Thursday, December 11th. TD Securities lowered their target price on shares of TELUS from C$26.00 to C$25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, National Bankshares dropped their target price on shares of TELUS from C$21.50 to C$21.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$21.79.

About TELUS

Telus is one of the Big Three wireless service providers in Canada, with its 9 million mobile phone subscribers nationwide constituting about 30% of the total market. It is the incumbent local exchange carrier in the western Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, where it provides internet, television, and landline phone services. It also has a small wireline presence in eastern Quebec. In recent years Telus has moved to bring fiber to the home over most of its wireline footprint as it upgrades its legacy copper network, leaving it able to compete on more equal footing with cable providers.