TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Stock Holdings Trimmed by Walter Public Investments Inc.

Walter Public Investments Inc. reduced its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 3.0% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 37,000 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after selling 1,161 shares during the period. Walter Public Investments Inc.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $501,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in TELUS by 24.2% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $438,922,000 after acquiring an additional 5,094,269 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp boosted its stake in TELUS by 1.3% in the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 16,882,528 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $283,854,000 after acquiring an additional 211,815 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its stake in TELUS by 0.7% in the third quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 6,701,819 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $112,610,000 after acquiring an additional 49,088 shares during the period. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in TELUS by 8.9% in the third quarter. Scheer Rowlett & Associates Investment Management Ltd. now owns 3,233,944 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $54,249,000 after acquiring an additional 263,774 shares during the period. Finally, Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its stake in TELUS by 13.5% in the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,666,500 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $44,785,000 after acquiring an additional 317,000 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on the company. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, TELUS has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $15.65 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $14.32 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.40. The company has a market cap of $23.48 billion, a PE ratio of 31.94, a P/E/G ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.75. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $13.24 and a 12-month high of $17.77.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.10 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a $0.2829 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.23%. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 224.49%.

About TELUS

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.