Avanza Fonder AB Takes Position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Avanza Fonder AB acquired a new position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 30,382 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock, valued at approximately $412,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in TU. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in TELUS by 24.2% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $438,922,000 after purchasing an additional 5,094,269 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. grew its position in shares of TELUS by 6.6% during the second quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 38,193,733 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $578,253,000 after purchasing an additional 2,365,753 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake in TELUS by 192.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,326,632 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $22,257,000 after acquiring an additional 872,235 shares during the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank boosted its position in shares of TELUS by 5.4% during the 2nd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 12,472,610 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $188,835,000 after acquiring an additional 636,845 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Centre Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of TELUS in the 4th quarter worth $6,946,000. Institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

TELUS Stock Up 0.5 %

Shares of TELUS stock traded up $0.07 during trading on Monday, hitting $13.94. 2,711,209 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,243,917. TELUS Co. has a 52-week low of $13.24 and a 52-week high of $18.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.50. The firm has a market cap of $20.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.74. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $14.61 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.60.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 8th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.17 by $0.11. TELUS had a net margin of 4.56% and a return on equity of 8.80%. The company had revenue of $5.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.19 earnings per share. TELUS's revenue for the quarter was up 1.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were given a $0.297 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.19 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.53%. This is an increase from TELUS's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS's payout ratio is presently 242.56%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TU has been the subject of several recent research reports. Scotiabank upgraded TELUS from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, October 28th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of TELUS in a research report on Monday, December 16th. They set an "equal weight" rating on the stock. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of TELUS from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $26.00.

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.