Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. Raises Holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P. lifted its position in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 11.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 502,351 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after purchasing an additional 52,574 shares during the quarter. Northwest & Ethical Investments L.P.'s holdings in TELUS were worth $6,799,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in shares of TELUS by 24.2% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 26,160,789 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $438,922,000 after buying an additional 5,094,269 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 872,235 shares during the last quarter. Centre Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in TELUS during the 4th quarter worth approximately $6,946,000. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. grew its stake in shares of TELUS by 13.5% in 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, BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp increased its holdings in shares of TELUS by 132.4% in the third 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

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Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TU has been the subject of several recent research reports. Cormark downgraded TELUS from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of TELUS from an "outperform" rating to a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on TELUS in a report on Monday, December 16th. They issued an "equal weight" rating on the stock. Bank of America downgraded TELUS from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $26.00.

TELUS Price Performance

TU stock traded up $0.12 on Tuesday, reaching $13.91. The company had a trading volume of 3,286,724 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,725,472. The company's fifty day moving average is $14.84 and its 200 day moving average is $15.26. The company has a market cap of $21.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.39, a PEG ratio of 5.18 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.52, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. TELUS Co. has a 1 year low of $13.24 and a 1 year high of $17.27.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.02. TELUS had a return on equity of 9.07% and a net margin of 4.85%. The business had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.10 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that TELUS Co. will post 0.71 earnings per share for the current year.

TELUS Cuts Dividend

The company 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 $0.2829 dividend. This represents a $1.13 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 8.13%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 11th. TELUS's dividend payout ratio is presently 226.53%.

TELUS Company 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.