Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd Acquires 61,123 Shares of TELUS Corporation $TU

Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd grew its holdings in shares of TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 58.7% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 165,287 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 61,123 shares during the period. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd’s holdings in TELUS were worth $2,178,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC raised its stake in TELUS by 1.5% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 779,692 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $11,181,000 after buying an additional 11,900 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 1.9% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 46,099 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $739,000 after acquiring an additional 841 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 159.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 37,274 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $597,000 after acquiring an additional 22,912 shares in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 67.7% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 8,698 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $140,000 after acquiring an additional 3,510 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP bought a new position in shares of TELUS during the second quarter valued at $3,617,000. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Performance

TU stock opened at $12.21 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.92 billion, a PE ratio of 27.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 12.11 and a beta of 0.61. TELUS Corporation has a 12-month low of $11.69 and a 12-month high of $16.74. The company has a current ratio of 0.67, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $12.75 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.31.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.01. TELUS had a return on equity of 8.29% and a net margin of 4.54%.The business had revenue of $3.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.26 EPS. TELUS’s revenue was down .6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that TELUS Corporation will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be given a $0.4184 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 13.7%. TELUS’s payout ratio is 279.55%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on TU. Bank of America upgraded TELUS from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $14.50 to $16.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Wall Street Zen upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. TD Cowen upgraded TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of TELUS from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 20th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 9th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, TELUS presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $16.33.

About TELUS

TELUS Corporation (NYSE: TU) is a Canadian telecommunications and technology company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It delivers a broad portfolio of consumer and business communications services across Canada, including mobile wireless, fixed-line voice, broadband internet, and television. TELUS also provides a range of enterprise services such as cloud and IT solutions, managed network services, cybersecurity and Internet of Things (IoT) offerings for business customers.

Beyond core connectivity, TELUS has expanded into health and digital services.