Centurylink (CTL) Upgraded to Outperform by Royal Bank of Canada

Centurylink (NYSE:CTL) was upgraded by equities researchers at Royal Bank of Canada from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report released on Thursday.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $26.00 price objective on shares of Centurylink in a research report on Thursday, November 9th. Zacks Investment Research raised Centurylink from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Centurylink in a research report on Tuesday, January 9th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Centurylink from $23.00 to $19.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 4th. Finally, ValuEngine raised Centurylink from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.37.

Shares of Centurylink (NYSE CTL) opened at $17.39 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.92, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $18,525.82, a P/E ratio of 29.98, a P/E/G ratio of -7.55 and a beta of 0.79. Centurylink has a 52 week low of $13.16 and a 52 week high of $27.61.

Centurylink (NYSE:CTL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 8th. The technology company reported $0.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $4.03 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.06 billion. Centurylink had a net margin of 1.89% and a return on equity of 7.99%. The business’s revenue was down 7.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.56 earnings per share. analysts forecast that Centurylink will post 1.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

In other news, Director Martha Helena Bejar purchased 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 8th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $14.28 per share, with a total value of $99,960.00. Following the acquisition, the director now directly owns 25,991 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $371,151.48. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Virginia Boulet purchased 5,095 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 11th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $15.48 per share, for a total transaction of $78,870.60. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 42,820 shares in the company, valued at $662,853.60. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have bought a total of 150,595 shares of company stock worth $2,154,131 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.61% of the company’s stock.

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Centurylink by 6.2% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,289,893 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $194,498,000 after buying an additional 600,462 shares during the period. Capital World Investors bought a new position in shares of Centurylink during the 2nd quarter valued at $142,086,000. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Centurylink by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 5,521,373 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $104,354,000 after buying an additional 546,435 shares during the period. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Centurylink by 61.5% during the 4th quarter. Schwab Charles Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,358,192 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $72,695,000 after buying an additional 1,658,861 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Centurylink by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,120,750 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $77,891,000 after buying an additional 171,620 shares during the period. 42.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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Centurylink Company Profile

CenturyLink, Inc is an integrated communications company. The Company is engaged in providing an array of communications services to its residential and business customers. Its segments include Enterprise, which provides strategic, legacy and data integration products and services to small, medium and enterprise business, wholesale and governmental customers, including other communication providers, and Consumer, which provides strategic and legacy products and services to residential customers.

Analyst Recommendations for Centurylink (NYSE:CTL)