Clearbridge Investments LLC Sells 138,664 Shares of TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU)

Clearbridge Investments LLC lowered its holdings in TELUS Co. (NYSE:TU - Free Report) TSE: T by 2.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 5,944,050 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock after selling 138,664 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned approximately 0.40% of TELUS worth $90,003,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Fairscale Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of TELUS in the second quarter valued at $27,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 60.4% in the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,533 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $41,000 after acquiring an additional 954 shares during the last quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd increased its stake in shares of TELUS by 39.8% in the first quarter. Gulf International Bank UK Ltd now owns 2,752 shares of the Wireless communications provider's stock worth $44,000 after acquiring an additional 784 shares during the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd acquired a new position in shares of TELUS in the first quarter worth $58,000. Finally, Dixon Mitchell Investment Counsel Inc. acquired a new position in TELUS during the first quarter worth $71,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 49.40% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on TU. StockNews.com raised TELUS from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded TELUS from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 6th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, TELUS currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $27.33.

TELUS Price Performance

TU traded down $0.22 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $16.43. 1,810,298 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,256,596. TELUS Co. has a one year low of $14.63 and a one year high of $19.14. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.41 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 0.74.

TELUS (NYSE:TU - Get Free Report) TSE: T last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 2nd. The Wireless communications provider reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.16 by $0.09. TELUS had a net margin of 3.87% and a return on equity of 8.50%. The business had revenue of $3.64 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.70 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.14 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that TELUS Co. will post 0.73 EPS for the current year.

TELUS Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, October 1st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th were issued a dividend of $0.284 per share. This represents a $1.14 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.91%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, September 10th. This is a positive change from TELUS's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. TELUS's payout ratio is currently 294.87%.

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.