MQS Management LLC Buys New Shares in TELUS Corporation $TU

MQS Management LLC bought a new stake in TELUS Corporation (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 46,274 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock, valued at approximately $609,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in TELUS by 1.5% in the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 36,863,219 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $580,740,000 after purchasing an additional 550,574 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in TELUS by 3.2% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,470,046 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $388,415,000 after purchasing an additional 916,459 shares during the period. Scotia Capital Inc. boosted its holdings in TELUS by 4.5% in the third quarter. Scotia Capital Inc. now owns 19,687,766 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $310,129,000 after purchasing an additional 845,682 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in TELUS by 9.1% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 18,764,954 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $295,645,000 after purchasing an additional 1,566,983 shares during the period. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp boosted its holdings in TELUS by 10.7% in the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 17,867,796 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $281,326,000 after purchasing an additional 1,725,982 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TELUS Stock Up 0.6%

TELUS stock opened at $12.50 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $12.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.59, a current ratio of 0.67 and a quick ratio of 0.63. TELUS Corporation has a 1-year low of $11.69 and a 1-year high of $16.74. The stock has a market cap of $19.67 billion, a PE ratio of 28.40, a P/E/G ratio of 12.20 and a beta of 0.61.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.17 EPS 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 for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.26 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down .6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that TELUS Corporation will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 10th will be given a dividend of $0.4184 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 10th. This represents a $1.67 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 13.4%. TELUS’s payout ratio is 279.55%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on TU shares. TD Cowen upgraded TELUS from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. TD Securities upgraded TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. 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 research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Canaccord Genuity Group cut TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 9th. Finally, Scotiabank cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 10th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus 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.