TELUS (TSE:T) Director Purchases 56,200 Shares

TELUS Co. (TSE:T) (NYSE:TU) Director Darren Entwistle acquired 56,200 shares of TELUS stock in a transaction on Monday, December 22nd. The shares were purchased at an average price of C$17.33 per share, with a total value of C$973,946.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director owned 1,132,190 shares in the company, valued at C$19,620,852.70. This represents a 5.22% increase in their position.

Darren Entwistle also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, December 19th, Darren Entwistle purchased 2,600 shares of TELUS stock. The shares were acquired at an average cost of C$17.41 per share, for a total transaction of C$45,266.00.
• On Friday, December 19th, Darren Entwistle acquired 190,000 shares of TELUS stock. The shares were acquired at an average cost of C$17.38 per share, for a total transaction of C$3,302,200.00.

TELUS Stock Performance

TSE T traded up C$0.20 during trading hours on Friday, hitting C$19.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,400,270 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,772,031. TELUS Co. has a 12 month low of C$17.26 and a 12 month high of C$23.29. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is C$18.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is C$20.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 183.41, a current ratio of 0.69 and a quick ratio of 0.52. The company has a market cap of C$29.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 0.85.

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

Key TELUS News

Here are the key news stories impacting TELUS this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Multiple directors materially increased their stakes in late December—Director (and long?time CEO) Darren Entwistle purchased 190,000 shares at ~C$17.38 (plus a smaller 2,600?share buy), and directors Thomas Flynn, David Mowat and Hazel Claxton each added several thousand shares at ~C$17.37–17.46. Large insider accumulation, especially by the CEO, signals executive confidence and can support the stock. MarketBeat: TELUS insider trades
• Negative Sentiment: An MSN piece recommends buying a different TSX dividend stock instead of Telus, which could weigh on dividend?income investor sentiment and pressure the stock if that view gains traction. MSN article
• Negative Sentiment: CBC reported a Telus outage that knocked out cellular service on Haida Gwaii; while the issue appears localized and repairs are underway, service interruptions can cause short?term customer frustration and localized reputational risk. CBC: Telus outage

Analysts Set New Price Targets

T has been the topic of several research reports. TD Securities reduced their price target on shares of TELUS from C$26.00 to C$25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Natl Bk Canada upgraded shares of TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 25th. BMO Capital Markets cut shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from C$23.00 to C$19.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered TELUS from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from C$22.00 to C$19.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their price objective on TELUS from C$22.50 to C$22.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$21.79.

TELUS Company Profile

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.