Lincluden Management Ltd. Grows Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Lincluden Management Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 1.0% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,959,730 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,196 shares during the quarter. TELUS comprises approximately 3.2% of Lincluden Management Ltd.’s portfolio, making the stock its 12th biggest holding. Lincluden Management Ltd. owned 0.13% of TELUS worth $26,570,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in TELUS by 58.0% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 4,001 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $67,000 after buying an additional 1,468 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its holdings in shares of TELUS by 3.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 155,212 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $2,604,000 after acquiring an additional 4,822 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the third quarter valued at $187,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the third quarter valued at $265,000. Finally, Forsta AP Fonden raised its stake in shares of TELUS by 11.0% during the 3rd quarter. Forsta AP Fonden now owns 351,700 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $5,902,000 after purchasing an additional 34,900 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on TU. Scotiabank upgraded TELUS from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 28th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They set an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Finally, National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

TELUS Price Performance

Shares of NYSE TU opened at $15.63 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.89, a P/E/G ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.75. 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’s 50-day simple moving average is $14.25 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.40. TELUS Co. has a twelve month low of $13.24 and a twelve month high of $18.00.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period in the prior year, the business earned $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 EPS for the current fiscal 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 7.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 224.49%.

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.