Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Raises Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 11.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 502,351 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 52,574 shares during the period. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $6,799,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of TU. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 24.2% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $438,922,000 after acquiring an additional 5,094,269 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 192.0% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $22,257,000 after purchasing an additional 872,235 shares during the period. Centre Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of TELUS during the fourth quarter worth about $6,946,000. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 13.5% during the third quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,666,500 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $44,785,000 after purchasing an additional 317,000 shares during the period. Finally, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 132.4% during the third quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 479,785 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $8,048,000 after purchasing an additional 273,368 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

TELUS Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $14.66 on Friday. TELUS Co. has a 12-month low of $13.24 and a 12-month high of $17.27. The company has a market capitalization of $22.19 billion, a PE ratio of 29.91, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The business has a 50 day moving average of $14.83 and a two-hundred day moving average of $15.32. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.72%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is 226.53%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

TU has been the subject of a number of research reports. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating for the company. StockNews.com raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Cormark downgraded TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

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.