Mufg Securities Canada LTD. Raises Stock Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Mufg Securities Canada LTD. boosted its stake in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) by 68.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,236,163 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 912,277 shares during the period. Mufg Securities Canada LTD.’s holdings in TELUS were worth $30,299,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in TU. Barclays PLC grew its holdings in shares of TELUS by 38.5% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 467,148 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $7,839,000 after acquiring an additional 129,934 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 192.0% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $22,257,000 after purchasing an additional 872,235 shares during the period. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its position in shares of TELUS by 132.4% during the 3rd quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 479,785 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $8,048,000 after purchasing an additional 273,368 shares during the last quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. increased its position in shares of TELUS by 13.5% during the 3rd quarter. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. now owns 2,666,500 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock valued at $44,785,000 after purchasing an additional 317,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc lifted its stake in shares of TELUS by 6.9% in the 4th quarter. AEGON ASSET MANAGEMENT UK Plc now owns 1,017,200 shares of the Wireless communications provider’s stock worth $13,785,000 after purchasing an additional 65,940 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

TELUS Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of TELUS stock opened at $13.91 on Wednesday. TELUS Co. has a fifty-two week low of $13.24 and a fifty-two week high of $17.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. The company has a market capitalization of $21.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.39, a P/E/G ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a fifty day moving average of $14.84 and a 200 day moving average of $15.24.

TELUS (NYSE:TU) (TSE:T) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.10 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share 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 8.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS’s payout ratio is currently 226.53%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

TU has been the subject of a number of research reports. National Bank Financial cut shares of TELUS from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an “equal weight” rating on the stock. Bank of America lowered TELUS from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 21st. StockNews.com raised TELUS from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Cormark downgraded TELUS from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently has a consensus rating of “Hold”.

About TELUS

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.