TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Shares Acquired by Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lifted its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 11.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 502,351 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after buying 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 reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Blueshift Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TELUS during the fourth quarter worth approximately $142,000. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its position in shares of TELUS by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 88,180 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $1,197,000 after purchasing an additional 1,346 shares in the last quarter. Ninepoint Partners LP increased its position in shares of TELUS by 3.5% during the fourth quarter. Ninepoint Partners LP now owns 192,352 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $2,608,000 after purchasing an additional 6,423 shares in the last quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of TELUS by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. now owns 336,980 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $4,568,000 after purchasing an additional 7,073 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its position in shares of TELUS by 13.3% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,396,362 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $19,409,000 after purchasing an additional 163,984 shares in the last quarter. 49.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

TELUS Stock Performance

NYSE TU opened at $14.66 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $22.19 billion, a PE ratio of 29.91, a P/E/G ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. 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 Co. has a twelve month low of $13.24 and a twelve month high of $17.27. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.83 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.32.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations 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 prior year, the business posted $0.10 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have issued reports on the company. Cormark cut TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 10th. National Bank Financial cut TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating for the company. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, TELUS has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

TELUS 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.