886,811 Shares in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU) Purchased by Guardian Partners Inc.

Guardian Partners Inc. bought a new position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund bought 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 position. Guardian Partners Inc. owned approximately 0.06% of TELUS at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 7.4% during the 4th quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 21,733 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $294,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in TELUS by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 119,665 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $1,623,000 after buying an additional 5,286 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in TELUS during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $781,000. Summit Global Investments increased its holdings in TELUS by 533.3% during the fourth quarter. Summit Global Investments now owns 432,437 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock valued at $5,864,000 after buying an additional 364,149 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. raised its position in TELUS by 11.7% in the fourth quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. now owns 502,351 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $6,799,000 after acquiring an additional 52,574 shares during the period. 49.40% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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TELUS Price Performance

NYSE:TU traded up $0.17 on Thursday, reaching $14.29. 2,888,390 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,700,248. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $15.23. TELUS Co. has a 12 month low of $13.24 and a 12 month high of $17.27. The firm has a market cap of $21.63 billion, a PE ratio of 29.15, a P/E/G ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The company had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.10 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, April 1st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 11th will be issued a $0.2829 dividend. This represents a $1.13 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 226.53%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on TU shares. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a research note on Monday, December 16th. They issued an "equal weight" rating for the company. Bank of America cut TELUS from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday, March 21st. National Bank Financial downgraded TELUS from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Cormark cut shares of TELUS from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold".

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.