Guardian Partners Inc. Acquires New Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Guardian Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund acquired 886,811 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock, valued at approximately $12,325,000. TELUS accounts for about 1.3% of Guardian Partners Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 24th largest holding.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its stake in TELUS by 195,100.0% during the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 1,952 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,951 shares during the period. Avior Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in TELUS by 1,756.0% during the 4th quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,807 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $65,000 after acquiring an additional 4,548 shares during the period. Blueshift Asset Management LLC bought a new position in TELUS during the 4th quarter valued at about $142,000. Triasima Portfolio Management inc. bought a new position in TELUS during the 4th quarter valued at about $146,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its stake in TELUS by 25.6% during the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 15,270 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $256,000 after acquiring an additional 3,110 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have issued reports on TU shares. National Bank Financial cut shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America cut shares of TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. Cormark cut shares of TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.00.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:TU opened at $13.94 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $14.84 and its 200-day moving average price is $15.30. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $13.24 and a twelve month high of $17.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.10 billion, a PE ratio of 28.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a net margin of 4.85% and a return on equity of 9.07%. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2829 per share. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 8.12%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently 226.53%.

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.